Dietary patterns differently associate with inflammation and gut microbiota in overweight and obese subjects.

Background: Associations between dietary patterns, metabolic and inflammatory markers and gut microbiota are yet to be elucidated.

Objectives: We aimed to characterize dietary patterns in overweight and obese subjects and evaluate the different dietary patterns in relation to metabolic and inflammatory variables as well as gut microbiota.

Design: Dietary patterns, plasma and adipose tissue markers, and gut microbiota were evaluated in a group of 45 overweight and obese subjects (6 men and 39 women).

Insulin resistance and inflammation predict kinetic body weight changes in response to dietary weight loss and maintenance in overweight and obese subjects by using a Bayesian network approach.

Background: The ability to identify obese subjects who will lose weight in response to energy restriction is an important strategy in obesity treatment.

Objective: We aimed to identify obese subjects who would lose weight and maintain weight loss through 6 wk of energy restriction and 6 wk of weight maintenance.

Design: Fifty obese or overweight subjects underwent a 6-wk energy-restricted, high-protein diet followed by another 6 wk of weight maintenance.

Dietary intervention impact on gut microbial gene richness.

Complex gene-environment interactions are considered important in the development of obesity. The composition of the gut microbiota can determine the efficacy of energy harvest from food and changes in dietary composition have been associated with changes in the composition of gut microbial populations. The capacity to explore microbiota composition was markedly improved by the development of metagenomic approaches, which have already allowed production of the first human gut microbial gene catalogue and stratifying individuals by their gut genomic profile into different enterotypes, but the analyses were carried out mainly in non-intervention settings.

Nutritional status modulates behavioural and olfactory bulb Fos responses to isoamyl acetate or food odour in rats: roles of orexins and leptin.

Food odours are major determinants for food choice, and their detection depends on nutritional status. The effects of different odour stimuli on both behavioural responses (locomotor activity and sniffing) and Fos induction in olfactory bulbs (OB) were studied in satiated or 48-h fasted rats. We focused on two odour stimuli: isoamyl acetate (ISO), as a neutral stimulus either unknown or familiar, and food pellet odour, that were presented to quiet rats during the light phase of the day.

Proteins activate satiety-related neuronal pathways in the brainstem and hypothalamus of rats.

Our objective was to study the relationship between the satiety induced by high-protein meals and the activation of brain areas involved in the onset of satiety. In rats, we used immunohistochemistry to monitor brain centers activated by a meal by receiving information from the gastrointestinal tract or via humoral pathways. In the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS), the acute or chronic intake of high-protein meals led to increased activation of the noradrenergic/adrenergic neurons involved in cholecystokinin-induced satiety.

Fos-positive neurons are increased in the nucleus of the solitary tract and decreased in the ventromedial hypothalamus and amygdala by a high-protein diet in rats.

Transition from a normal- (NP) to a high-protein (HP) diet induces a rapid depression in food intake and a progressive but incomplete return to the initial intake during the succeeding days. The aim of this study was to determine which CNS regions are involved in the HP diet-induced satiety in rats. Brains were collected from 3 groups of adult rats after habituation to an NP diet (21 d), during the transition phase to a HP diet (2 d), or after habituation to the HP diet (21 d).

Presence of the N-methyl-D-aspartic acid R1 glutamatergic receptor subunit in the lumbosacral spinal cord of male rats.

The lumbosacral spinal cord contains neurones that control the lower urogenital and digestive tracts. Spinal neurones respond to activation from the periphery and supraspinal nuclei. Glutamate, acting through a variety of receptors, is an established transmitter of excitatory pathways to the spinal cord.

Spinal Fos labeling and penile erection elicited by stimulation of dorsal nerve of the rat penis.

Penile afferents present in the dorsal nerve of the penis (DNP) convey sensory information from the penis to the spinal cord and represent the afferent limb of reflexive erections. Immunocytochemical staining of Fos was used to identify spinal neurons that receive excitatory inputs from the DNP in anesthetized rats. Intracavernous pressure (ICP) was recorded as an index of erection.