Body composition and food intake.

<p>Changes in body weight and body composition, final percentage total body fat and lean, and cumulative food energy intake in diet-induced obese rats fed high fat diet (HF), high fat diet with 10% w/w pectin (HF+P), low fat diet (LF) or low fat diet with 10% w/w pectin (LF+P) for 4 weeks in two independently replicated experiments. Within rows, means with different superscript letters are significantly different (ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post hoc tests).</p

Plasma and liver lipid status.

<p>Lipid concentrations in plasma and liver of diet-induced obese rats fed high fat diet (HF), high fat diet with 10% w/w pectin (HF+P), low fat diet (LF) or low fat diet with 10% w/w pectin (LF+P) for 4 weeks in two independently replicated experiments. Within rows, means with different superscript letters are significantly different (by Tukey’s post hoc tests).</p

Plasma hormones.

<p>Final plasma concentrations of (a) PYY, (b) total GLP-1, (c) leptin, and (d) insulin in diet induced obese rats fed high fat diet (HF), high fat diet with 10% w/w pectin (HF+P), low fat diet (LF), or low fat diet with 10% w/w pectin (LF+P) for 4 weeks in two independently replicated experiments (<i>n</i> = 16 per diet group). Within figures, values labelled with different letters are significantly different (<i>P</i><0.001).</p

Gut morphology.

<p>Final gut regional weight and lengths in diet-induced obese rats fed high fat diet (HF), high fat diet with 10% w/w pectin (HF+P), low fat diet (LF) or low fat diet with 10% w/w pectin (LF+P) for 4 weeks in two independently replicated experiments. Within rows, means with different superscript letters are significantly different (by ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post hoc tests).</p

Food intake.

<p>Daily food energy intake by diet induced obese rats fed high fat diet (HF), high fat diet with 10% w/w pectin (HF+P), low fat diet (LF), or low fat diet with 10% w/w pectin (LF+P) for 4 weeks in two independently replicated experiments (<i>n</i> = 16 per diet group). ANOVA revealed HF > LF > HF+P > LF+P (<i>P</i><0.001).</p

Body weight.

<p>Body weights of diet induced obese rats fed high fat diet (HF), high fat diet with 10% w/w pectin (HF+P), low fat diet (LF), or low fat diet with 10% w/w pectin (LF+P) for 4 weeks in two independently replicated experiments (<i>n</i> = 16 per diet group). ANOVA revealed HF > LF > HF+P, LF+P (<i>P</i><0.001).</p

Gut regional weights, lengths and histological measurements in rats fed control diet (C) or diet containing 3, 7 or 10% pectin (P) for 8 days or 28 days.

<p>Values are means ± s.e.m. (<i>n</i> = 8/group). Within rows and cohorts, means with different superscript letters are significantly different, P<0.05. <i>r</i>, correlation with %P (Pearson correlation coefficient; <i>n</i> = 32/cohort);</p><p>*** <i>P</i><0.001,</p><p>* <i>P</i><0.05.</p><p>Gut regional weights, lengths and histological measurements in rats fed control diet (C) or diet containing 3, 7 or 10% pectin (P) for 8 days or 28 days.</p

Effect of photoperiod and high fat diet (HFD) on gene expression of <i>TSHβ</i> and <i>NMU</i> in the pars tuberalis of the pituitary and Dio2 and Dio3 in the tanycytes around the third ventricle in juvenile F344 rats after 4 weeks of treatment.

<p>Gene expression was measured by quantitative in situ hybridisation. (a,b) Expression of <i>TSHβ</i> (a) and <i>NMU</i> (b) mRNAs in the pars tuberalis were significantly lower in both chow and HFD fed SD compared to LD rats. (c) <i>Dio2</i> mRNA levels in the ependymal cells around the 3^rd ventricle were lower in SD than LD chow and HFD fed rats (p<0.001). HFD reduced Dio2 further in SD compared to LD conditions (p<0.001). (d) <i>Dio3</i> mRNA expression was higher in SD than LD rats. HFD increased the <i>Dio3</i> mRNA level significantly in SD (p<0.001), but not in LD.</p

Effect of photoperiod and high fat diet (HFD) on hypothalamic expression of genes involved in energy balance growth in juvenile F344 rats 4 weeks of treatment, measured by quantitative in situ hybridisation.

<p>(a) <i>AgRP</i> mRNA expression quantified in the ARC was lower in SD than LD chow fed rats (p<0.001). The HFD had no effect in LD but reduced the <i>AgRP</i> levels further than chow fed rats in SD (p = 0.001). (b) <i>CRH</i> mRNA expression in the PVN was higher in SD than LD chow (p = 0.044) and HFD rats (p = 0.022). The HFD did not impact further on the expression levels in either photoperiod. (c) <i>NPY</i> mRNA levels tended to increase in SD chow fed rats in the ARC but the level did not reach significance (p = 0.119). There were no effects of HFD on <i>NPY</i> expression in either photoperiod. (d) <i>POMC</i> mRNA expression in the ARC is outlined and marked by arrows while atypical <i>POMC</i> expression in the ependymal layer of the 3^rd ventricle is marked by an arrowhead. In the ARC, <i>POMC</i> levels were unaffected by photoperiod or diet. In contrast, levels of <i>POMC</i> mRNA were markedly reduced in SD photoperiod (p<0.001) with no additional effects of HFD feeding. (e) <i>GHRH</i> mRNA expression in the ARC was lower in SD than LD chow fed rats. HFD reduced the <i>GHRH</i> expression in LD and even further in SD. Scale bar = 1.0mm for all images.</p

Effect of photoperiod and high fat diet (HFD) on body weight, food, protein and energy intake and body fatness of juvenile F344 rats over 4 weeks of treatment.

<p>(a) Body weight was significantly higher in LD compared to SD (p<0.001) on chow diet with no effect of a HFD after 4 weeks. (b) Food intake in grams was significantly higher in LD than SD on chow diet (p<0.001) and these intakes were higher than the intakes of the HFD fed rats (p<0.001). There was a small photoperiodic difference in food intake when fed the HFD (p = 0.03). (c) Protein intake was higher in the LD than the SD chow fed rats (p<0.001). HFD fed rats showed lower protein intakes than the chow fed rats (LD; p<0.001, SD; p = 0.008) and there was a significant effect of photoperiod (p = 0.015). (d) Energy intakes were higher in LD than SD rats fed either chow (p<0.001) or HFD (p = 0.004), while rats fed the HFD had higher energy intakes than chow in both photoperiods (p<0.001). (e) Fat mass measured by Echo MRI was slightly higher in LD than SD rats on chow (p = 0.026), while the HFD fed rats did not differ in their intakes with photoperiod. The HFD fed rats had markedly higher fat masses that were significantly higher than chow fed rats (p<0.001). (f) A HFD markedly increased adiposity as a percentage of body weight compared to chow fed rats and to a similar level in rats on both LD and SD (p<0.001) with no effect of photoperiod. In all figures HF refers to HFD fed rats.</p