“Development and Characterization of a High-Fat High-Sucrose Dietary Model of Obesity in Wistar Rats”

Background: Obesity is a multifactorial metabolic disorder characterized by excessive fat accumulation, dyslipidaemia, oxidative stress, chronic inflammation, and adipokine imbalance. A high-fat high-sucrose (HFHS) dietary model can mimic several metabolic alterations associated with obesity.

Objective: To formulate and characterize an HFHS diet and evaluate its ability to induce obesity-associated metabolic alterations in male Wistar rats.

Methods: The HFHS diet was formulated using standard rat feed (68%), vanaspati ghee (20%), sucrose (10%), cholesterol (1.5%), and sodium taurocholate (0.5%), with wheat flour as binder. Pellets showed hardness of 10.91 ± 0.28 kg/cm² and friability of 0.80 ± 0.05%. Twelve male Wistar rats were allocated to normal control (n=6) and HFHS (n=6) groups and fed for eight weeks. Anthropometric, biochemical, oxidative stress, adipokine, and histopathological parameters were evaluated. Data were expressed as mean ± SEM and analysed using one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s test.

Results: Compared with normal controls, HFHS-fed rats showed increased body-weight gain (202% vs 98%). Leptin increased from 20.65 to 165.12 pg/mL (~8-fold; p<0.001), whereas adiponectin decreased from 24.96 to 2.424 ng/mL (~90%; p<0.001). HFHS feeding also increased BMI, Lee index, adipose tissue weight, blood glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL-C, hepatic and renal dysfunction markers, and lipid peroxidation, with reduced HDL-C, SOD, and CAT activities. Adipose tissue histopathology showed enlarged and irregularly arranged adipocytes with mild inflammatory infiltration.

Conclusion: The formulated HFHS diet produced an obesity-associated phenotype characterized by adiposity, metabolic dysregulation, oxidative stress, and adipokine imbalance in Wistar rats, supporting its use as a useful experimental model in this setting.