The Influence of Folic Acid, Vitamins B₂ and B₆ Supplementation on Feed Intake, Body and Organs Weight, and Liver Fatty Acids Composition of Rats Subjected to 3 months Moderate Protein Deprivation

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the effect of a 3-month dietary protein restriction - protein provided 9% of energy (20% in control group). In this dietary restriction folic acid, vitamins B(2) and B(6) were delivered in amount three times above the standard level. It was observed that animals fed a protein restricted (PR) diet weighed about 5% less than animals consuming adequate diet, but the difference was not statistically significant. Enrichment of PR diet with vitamin B or folic acid caused tendency to further suppression of weight gain, and in case of vitamin B(6) these differences were statistically significant. However, such body weight (BW) suppression was not observed when all studied vitamins were used together. Significant reductions in relative liver weight (vitamin B(2) addition), the heart (folic acid) and the lungs (vitamin B(6)) were observed. The PR diet, when all vitamins were added together, caused a decrease in weights of the lungs, heart and liver scaled to BW of rats, simultaneously with a significant increase in testis weight. Feed intake and feed conversion ratio were higher in animals given PR diet without a significant influence of vitamin supplementation (except vitamin B(6) causing further increase in feed conversion ratio). Hepatic fatty acids composition of rats was not affected by protein restriction, as well as by single vitamin supplementation. However, dietary supplementation of all examined vitamins together caused a decrease in monounsaturated fatty acids followed by an increase in polyunsaturated fatty acids participation in total fatty acids pool. It seems that enrichment of PR diet with a mixture of folic acid, vitamins B(2) and B(6) resulted in a partial reverse of growth suppression and reduction in testis size in rats.

The long-term effect of a protein-deficient-diet enriched with vitamin B6 on the blood parameters in unexercised and exercised rats

“…Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al (2008) showed that vitamin B6 lessens the negative effect of hypocaloric diet and helps maintaining fat-free mass in overweight/obese women. A similar correlation was observed by Debski, Bertrandt, Klos, and Gralak (2007). They showed that in rats fed with protein-restricted diet (9% of protein), the addition of vitamin B6 decreased body weight.…”

“…They showed that in rats fed with protein-restricted diet (9% of protein), the addition of vitamin B6 decreased body weight. In contrast, a study of Debski, Bertrandt, Klos, and Gralak (2006) showed that vitamin B6 enrichment of low-protein diet (4.5% of protein) did not affect significantly body weight and food consumption in rats. Taking together, we believe that the vitamin B6 supplementation may have an opposite effect on the body weight depending on the organism health status: in severe protein malnutrition may increase body weight, and in normal nutrition, or less severe malnutrition may decrease body weight.…”

The effect of folic acid administration on cardiac tissue matrix metalloproteinase activity and hepatorenal biomarkers in diabetic rats

“…Interestingly, statistically strong linear correlation of heart and body mass was observed in the C and in both diabetic groups but not in the FA group. Earlier studies have demonstrated that there is decreased heart mass expressed per 100 g of body in rats fed with a low protein diet (Debski et al 2007) and in the heart masses of mice fed with a D r a f t high-fat diet (Li et al 2017) that were treated with folic acid. This indicates that folic acid may have influence on the heart mass and correlation between the heart and body mass.…”

The effects of diet composition and vitamin B supplementation on the urine isoprostane concentration in rats

“…Likewise, a lack of the effect of diet supplementation with B-group vitamins on feed intake was demonstrated by Debski et al (2007). Despite the known effect of a sucrose-containing diet on increasing body weight gains of animals (Chepulis, 2007), the reported study did Table 2.…”