Gingerol supplementation does not change glucose tolerance, lipid profile and does not prevent weight gain in C57BL/6 mice fed a high-fat diet

Abstract

Summary: We hypothesized that gingerol supplementation would exert protective effects against high-fat diet (HFD)-induced weight gain via regulation of lipid and glucose homeostasis. To test our hypothesis, forty C57BL/6 mice were fed a standard diet (SD), SD plus gingerol (SDG), high-fat diet (HFD) and HFD plus gingerol (HFDG) for 12 weeks. Gingerol dose was 500 mg/kg/d. HFD groups presented higher total food intake (grams) as compared to SD groups (97%). Nevertheless, there were no significant differences in weight gain between the groups. Gingerol supplementation did not prevent retroperitoneal, epididymal, and brown fat gain on HFDG, as well did not change liver weight. In addition, no difference was observed on lipid profile and glucose tolerance test. These results suggest that gingerol supplementation in mice fed high-fat diet has limited effects to prevent weight and fat gain, and do not inhibit the increase on area under serum glucose curve.

Keywords

• Gingerol
• Metabolic profile
• Obesity
• Mice
• High-fat diet
• Zingiber officinale