Metformin and intermittent fasting mitigate high fat-fructose diet-induced liver and skeletal muscle injury through upregulation of mitophagy genes in rats

Background

High fat-fructose diet is a proinflammatory diet that increases risk of hepatocytes and myocytes steatosis and fibrosis. Finding anti-inflammatory strategies to fight these harmful effects is paid attention to nowadays. This study compared the effects of two widely anti-inflammatory interventions—metformin and intermittent fasting on myocytes and hepatocyte injury induced by proinflammatory diet and tracking possible underlying mechanisms. In this work, rats fed high fat-fructose diet were subdivided into untreated group, treated by metformin, and/or intermittent fasting.

Results

Metformin (300 mg/kg/day) and intermittent fasting (3 days/week) specially their combination for 4 weeks showed significant improvement in insulin resistance, lipid profile, antioxidants (p < 0.05), as well as enhanced hepatocytes and myocytes repair and reduced collagen deposition through upregulation of mitophagy-related genes: PINK1, PARKIN, LAMP2, and PPAR-α (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

Intermittent fasting has beneficial metabolic and molecular therapeutic effects against proinflammatory diet-induced injury. Their results are like those of metformin sparing its adverse effects. Their combination showed additional effects against diet-induced myocytes and hepatocyte injury by upregulation of mitophagy-related genes without the need of increasing the dose of metformin.

Graphic abstract