Elsevier

Metabolism

Volume 112, November 2020, 154350
Metabolism

Basic Science
Interesterified palm oil impairs glucose homeostasis and induces deleterious effects in liver of Swiss mice

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.metabol.2020.154350Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open access

Highlights

  • Interesterification changes the position of fatty acids in triacylglycerol molecules the fatty acid profile remains unaltered

  • Interesterified fat leads to body mass gain and impairs glucose homeostasis under normocaloric/normolipic diet

  • Likewise the HFD, interesterified palm oil impairs glucose homeostasis and hepatic glucose production under normolipic diet

  • Interesterified palm oil and HFD increases glucose production and fatty acid deposition in liver

  • Interesterified fat increases the expression of cellular stress markers in the liver and white adipose tissue

Abstract

Background

Interesterified fats have largely replaced the partially hydrogenated oils which are the main dietary source of trans fat in industrialized food. This process promotes a random rearrangement of the native fatty acids and the results are different triacylglycerol (TAG) molecules without generating trans isomers. The role of interesterified fats in metabolism remains unclear. We evaluated metabolic parameters, glucose homeostasis and inflammatory markers in mice fed with normocaloric and normolipidic diets or hypercaloric and high-fat diet enriched with interesterified palm oil.

Methods

Male Swiss mice were randomly divided into four experimental groups and submitted to either normolipidic palm oil diet (PO), normolipidic interesterified palm oil diet (IPO), palm oil high-fat diet (POHF) or interesterified palm oil high-fat diet (IPOHF) during an 8 weeks period.

Results

When compared to the PO group, IPO group presented higher body mass, hyperglycemia, impaired glucose tolerance, evidence of insulin resistance and greater production of glucose in basal state during pyruvate in situ assay. We also observed higher protein content of hepatic PEPCK and increased cytokine mRNA expression in the IPO group when compared to PO. Interestingly, IPO group showed similar parameters to POHF and IPOHF groups.

Conclusion

The results indicate that substitution of palm oil for interesterified palm oil even on normocaloric and normolipidic diet could negatively modulate metabolic parameters and glucose homeostasis as well as cytokine gene expression in the liver and white adipose tissue. This data support concerns about the effects of interesterified fats on health and could promote further discussions about the safety of the utilization of this unnatural fat by food industry.

Keywords

Interesterification
Structured lipids
Triacylglycerol structure
Fatty acid positional distribuition
Adipose tissue
Metabolic parameters
Inflammation

Cited by (0)