High Fat High Sugar Diet Reduces Voluntary Wheel Running in Mice Independent of Sex Hormone Involvement

Abstract

Introduction: Indirect results in humans suggest that chronic overfeeding decreases physical activity with few suggestions regarding what mechanism(s) may link overfeeding and decreased activity. The primary sex hormones are known regulators of activity and there are reports that chronic overfeeding alters sex hormone levels. Thepurpose of this study was to determine if chronic overfeeding altered wheel running through altered sex hormone levels.Materials and Methods: C57BL/6J mice were bred and the pups were weaned at 3-weeks of age and randomly assigned to either a control (CFD) or high fat/high sugar (HFHS) diet for 9–11 weeks depending on activity analysis. Nutritional intake, body composition, sex hormone levels, and 3-day and 2-week wheel-running activity were measured. Additionally, groups of HFHS animals were supplemented with testosterone (males) and 17β-estradiol (females) to determine if sex hormone augmentation altered diet-induced changes in activity.Results: 117 mice (56♂, 61♀) were analyzed. The HFHS mice consumed significantly more calories per day than CFD mice (male: p < 0.0001; female: p < 0.0001) and had significantly higher body fat (male: p < 0.0001; female: p < 0.0001). The HFHS diet did not reduce sex hormone levels, but did significantly reduce acute running-wheel distance in male (p = 0.05, 70 ± 28%) and female mice (p = 0.02, 57 ± 26%). In animals that received hormone supplementation, there was no significant effect on activity levels. Two-weeks of wheel access was not sufficient to alter HFHS-induced reductions in activity or increases in body fat.Conclusion: Chronic overfeeding reduces wheel running, but is independent of the primary sex hormones.

Physical Activity Induces Nucleus Accumbens Genes Expression Changes Preventing Chronic Pain Susceptibility Promoted by High-Fat Diet and Sedentary Behavior in Mice

“…In fact, Friend et al (2017) showed that HFD contributes to physical inactivity in mice with obesity and it was independent of body mass or obesity per se, but associated to striatal dysfunction of dopamine signaling; namely the mice showed a diet-induced lack of motivation for voluntary physical activity. Other researchers have already shown a decrease of motivation and distance traveled in voluntary physical activity when mice were fed an HFD or a typical western diet compared to mice fed a standard diet (Funkat et al, 2004;Bjursell et al, 2008;Vellers et al, 2017). However, the differential gene expression in the NAc related to motivation for physical inactivity is unknown and few studies investigated these questions looking the NAc, a key FIGURE 9 | Volcano plot of the differential gene expression in the nucleus accumbens (NAc).…”

Biological/Genetic Regulation of Physical Activity Level

“…Results from the late 1800s suggested that diet could affect physical activity level (135) and it is well known and accepted that certain experimental paradigms that moderately reduce caloric intake will reliably increase physical activity in rodents and non-human primates (136–138) and probably humans (139, 140). Interestingly, altering dietary composition in selectively bred, highly active mice markedly increases activity (102, 141), while feeding a high fat, high sugar diet in inbred mice resulted in large reductions in daily activity in both sexes (142). It is currently unclear if these diet-induced alterations in activity are moderated through hormonal alterations (e.g.…”

Jicama (Pachyrhizus erosus) fiber prevents excessive blood glucose and body weight increase without affecting food intake in mice fed with high-sugar diet

“…However, at the end of treatment, despite the final body weight of HSD-fed mice was higher; it was statistically comparable with other groups (ND and JF groups). Likely, another study also demonstrated that mice fed with solid sugar diet remained insignificantly different in their body weight as compared with control group, though the fat mass as an indicator of obesity markedly increased [33]. Since our current study also used the solid sugar (sucrose powder) instead of liquid sugar for HSD treatment, thus it might less effective to quickly induce an apparent body weight increase although the adiposity was elevated.…”