Catálogo de Investigaciones | 2014-2015

46 CIENCIAS Consumption of High Fat Diet Changes Gut Microflora and Brain Behavior in Sprague Dawley Rat Over the past decade, obesity has become an increasing problem worldwide according to the World Health Organization. Due to increased work load, stress, and other obligations, people tend to eat outside the home, often picking meals with a higher content of fat, and calories (called “the western diet”) resulting in increased body mass index (BMI) causing obesity. In fact, several studies suggest that obesity produces gut dysfunction, inflammation, changes in the gut microflora, and mental disorders. However, is still unclear if the changes of gut microflora cause mental disorders such as depression in a model of obesity. The hypothesis is that high fat diet causes gut microflora dysfunction resulting in depression. Two months Sprague Dawley rats were fed with diet induced obesity (DIO), high fat diet, or diet resistant (DR), low fat diet, for 30 days. Before and after the diet change, samples such as feces and blood were collected for molecular analysis. After 30 days, behavioral analyses were evaluated for depressive and anxiety behaviors. DIO rats show border line significant depressive behavior compared with DR group; however no differences were found in anxiety like behavior. Molecular analysis shows that DIO group has higher epididymal fat tissue and a higher expression of leptin in the blood compared with the DR group. However, no differences in absolute weight were found in both groups. Moreover, metagenomics analysis on the feces shows a difference in 30 days in the family; higher percent of bacteriodes were found in the DIO animals than in the DR animals. These data indicate that weight is not an indicator of obesity; however the type of food consumption could initiate changes in the gut microflora and blood resulting in behavioral changes such as depression. evelyn n. cora y sugeily ramos maestría en ciencias con especialidad en biotecnología mentor: dra. gladys chompre gonzález obesity high fat diet depression