Beneficial Effects of Alpha-Lipoic Acid on Hypertension, Visceral Obesity, UCP-1 Expression and Oxidative Stress in Zucker Diabetic Fatty Rats
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Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada
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Research Team “Biology, Environment and Health”, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences and Techniques Errachidia, Moulay Ismail University of Meknes, 52000 Errachidia, Morocco
3
Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, McGill University Health Centre Research Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC H4A3J1, Canada
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Antioxidants 2019, 8(12), 648; https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox8120648
Received: 4 November 2019 / Revised: 28 November 2019 / Accepted: 11 December 2019 / Published: 16 December 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Oxidative Stress in Food Additives and Other Exposomes)
Evidence suggests that oxidative stress plays a major role in the development of metabolic syndrome. This study aims to investigate whether α-lipoic acid (LA), a potent antioxidant, could exert beneficial outcomes in Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rats. Male 6-week-old ZDF rats and their lean counterparts (ZL) were fed for six weeks with a standard diet or a chow diet supplemented with LA (1 g/kg feed). At 12 weeks of age, ZDF rats exhibited an increase in systolic blood pressure, epididymal fat weight per body weight, hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance (HOMA index), adipocyte hypertrophy and a rise in basal superoxide anion (O2•−) production in gastrocnemius muscle and a downregulation of epididymal uncoupled protein-1 (UCP-1) protein staining. Treatment with LA prevented the development of hypertension, the rise in whole body weight and O2•− production in gastrocnemius muscle, but failed to affect insulin resistance, hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia in ZDF rats. LA treatment resulted in a noticeable increase of pancreatic weight and a further adipocyte hypertrophy, along with a decrease in epididymal fat weight per body weight ratio associated with an upregulation of epididymal UCP-1 protein staining in ZDF rats. These findings suggest that LA was efficacious in preventing the development of hypertension, which could be related to its antioxidant properties. The anti-visceral obesity effect of LA appears to be mediated by its antioxidant properties and the induction of UCP-1 protein at the adipose tissue level in ZDF rats. Disorders of glucose metabolism appear, however, to be mediated by other unrelated mechanisms in this model of metabolic syndrome.
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Keywords:
type 2 diabetes; metabolic syndrome; insulin resistance; visceral obesity; hypertension; oxidative stress; α-lipoic acid
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MDPI and ACS Style
El Midaoui, A.; Fantus, I.G.; Ait Boughrous, A.; Couture, R. Beneficial Effects of Alpha-Lipoic Acid on Hypertension, Visceral Obesity, UCP-1 Expression and Oxidative Stress in Zucker Diabetic Fatty Rats. Antioxidants 2019, 8, 648.
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