Cognitive Impairment Following High Fat Diet Consumption is Associated with Brain Inflammation

Overview

Journal J Neuroimmunol

Specialty Neurology

Date 2009 Dec 17

PMID 20004026

Citations 251

Authors

Paul J Pistell

Christopher D Morrison

Sunita Gupta

Alecia G Knight

Jeffrey N Keller

Donald K Ingram

Annadora J Bruce-Keller

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

C57Bl/6 mice were administered a high fat, Western diet (WD, 41% fat) or a very high fat lard diet (HFL, 60% fat), and evaluated for cognitive ability using the Stone T-maze and for biochemical markers of brain inflammation. WD consumption resulted in significantly increased body weight and astrocyte reactivity, but not impaired cognition, microglial reactivity, or heightened cytokine levels. HFL increased body weight, and impaired cognition, increased brain inflammation, and decreased BDNF. Collectively, these data suggest that while different diet formulations can increase body weight, the ability of high fat diets to disrupt cognition is linked to brain inflammation.

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