Investigating diet-induced metabolic syndrome in a typical American versus Mediterranean diet model in C57BL/6J mice

Bertrand, Morgan

Item

Investigating diet-induced metabolic syndrome in a typical American versus Mediterranean diet model in C57BL/6J mice

Bertrand, Morgan

Date

2025-04-28

Abstract

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of concurrent cardiometabolic risk factors, including abdominal obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and hyperglycemia. The key pathophysiology of MetS is insulin resistance, which disrupts glucose and lipid metabolism primarily in the liver and adipose tissue. The development of insulin resistance is multifaceted, and risk can be mitigated with lifestyle modifications including improved nutrition. There has been a recent interest in developing better rodent diet models that more accurately reflect a comprehensive, human diet. This study directly compared a typical American diet (TAD) to a Mediterranean diet (MD) to investigate MetS development. After three months of diet consumption, male mice on the TAD had elevated serum insulin levels, adiposity, and dyslipidemia, compared to the MD group. Further, these differences were not observed in females, suggesting sex differences in health outcomes.