Dose-Dependent Effects of a Soluble Dietary Fibre (Pectin) on Food Intake, Adiposity, Gut Hypertrophy and Gut Satiety Hormone Secretion in Rats

Abstract

Soluble fermentable dietary fibre elicits gut adaptations, increases satiety and potentially offers a natural sustainable means of body weight regulation. Here we aimed to quantify physiological responses to graded intakes of a specific dietary fibre (pectin) in an animal model. Four isocaloric semi-purified diets containing 0, 3.3%, 6.7% or 10% w/w apple pectin were offered ad libitum for 8 or 28 days to young adult male rats (n = 8/group). Measurements were made of voluntary food intake, body weight, initial and final body composition by magnetic resonance imaging, final gut regional weights and histology, and final plasma satiety hormone concentrations. In both 8- and 28-day cohorts, dietary pectin inclusion rate was negatively correlated with food intake, body weight gain and the change in body fat mass, with no effect on lean mass gain. In both cohorts, pectin had no effect on stomach weight but pectin inclusion rate was positively correlated with weights and lengths of small intestine and caecum, jejunum villus height and crypt depth, ileum crypt depth, and plasma total glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and peptide tyrosine tyrosine (PYY) concentrations, and at 8 days was correlated with weight and length of colon and with caecal mucosal depth. Therefore, the gut’s morphological and endocrine adaptations were dose-dependent, occurred within 8 days and were largely sustained for 28 days during continued dietary intervention. Increasing amounts of the soluble fermentable fibre pectin in the diet proportionately decreased food intake, body weight gain and body fat content, associated with proportionately increased satiety hormones GLP-1 and PYY and intestinal hypertrophy, supporting a role for soluble dietary fibre-induced satiety in healthy body weight regulation.

Effect of pectin feeding on obesity development and duodenal alkaline phosphatase activity in Sprague-Dawley rats fed with high-fat/high-energy diet

“…Pectin effects are mediated through its chemical-physiological properties as it passes through the gastrointestinal tract. It has been found that addition of pectin to the diet resulted in significantly higher weight and length of intestinal tissues and also in increasing small intestinal villus height and depth of the crypts in the small and large intestines compared with rats fed with a control diet (2,15,25). Data from other studies also indicate that consumption of diet with pectin leads to increased satiety, decreased food intake, body weight gain and total body fat in male rats (1,8,24).…”

The Effect of Increased Fiber Ingestion on Lipid Levels and Body Mass: A 4-Week Trial

“…As such, a fiber-rich diet is also one that is processed and absorbed more slowly [5]. Several studies have suggested that increased satiety and reduced food intake can result from increases in dietary fiber which correlated with weight loss [5,8,9].…”

“…This material has a confirmed positive impact on cholesterol reduction. It also leads to increased water retention (up to 7-8 times its mass in some instances), causing a rapid increase in the satiety hormones GLP-1 and PYY in rodent models [8], commonly targeted in several medically prescribed diabetes control medications [13]. Diets high in fiber have led to reduced weight in controlled clinical trials [4].…”

Effect of High Fiber Cakes Prepared From Some Fruits and Vegetable Wastes on Lipid Metabolism of Male Albino Rats.

“…This is attributed to the water-holding capacity and induced viscosity of soluble fibers. Adam et al (2015) showed that dietary fiber eliminated food intakes so, rats gained less body weight and required more food to gain a gram of body weight than their counterpart control fed rats.The differences were highly significant at p ≤ 0.05 between the control and the tested groups ( table 7). For serum cholesterol, it could be observed that including cholesterol in rat's diets led to increase the level of serum cholesterol ISSN: 2320-5407 Int.…”