Introduction: High-calorie diet is responsible for excessive weight gain. Obesity has recently become world epidemics, affecting not only adults but also children, which makes it the biggest health problem in the world. Yet the underlying mechanism remains a matter of debate.
Objectives: The aim of this study is to clarify the role of gender in high fat diet induced obesity in pups and adult animals.
Materials and methods: Female rats were fed low/ high fat diet during mating, pregnancy and lactation. The offspring and adult rats fed different diet had their body weight and temperature measurements taken twice a week. On the 21st day of the experiment the animals underwent anesthesia in order to have their blood samples collected for lipid profile.
Results: After 3 weeks on HF diet female pups body weight was higher than in control group (p 〈0.05). Contrary to the female pups, the increase in body weight was higher (p 〈0.05) in male pups and occurred after 2 and 3 weeks. In adult female rats body weight increased after 2 weeks on HF, while in adult male group such weight gain was observed no sooner than after 3 weeks. A er three weeks of the experiment body weight was correlated positively (r = 0.941) with lipid profile of adult both gender groups on HF diet.
Conclusions: In male pups group body weight increased faster and achieved higher values then in female pups. On the contrary, in adult group of females body weight increased faster than in male rats and achieved similar values.
Keywords: high-fat diet; obesity; rat lipid profile.