Relationship of cardiac remodeling and perfusion alteration with hepatic lipid metabolism in a prediabetic high fat high sucrose diet female rat model

Background and Aims: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is known to be linked with metabolic associated fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes, but few studies assessed this relationship in prediabetes, especially among women, who are at greater risk of CVD. We aimed to evaluate cardiac alterations and its relationship with hepatic lipid metabolism in prediabetic female rats submitted to high-fat-high-sucrose diet (HFS). Methods and Results: Wistar female rats were divided into 2 groups fed for 5 months with standard or HFS diet. We analyzed cardiac morphology, function, perfusion and fibrosis by Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Hepatic lipid contents along with inflammation and lipid metabolism gene expression were assessed. Five months of HFS diet induced glucose intolerance (p<0.05), cardiac remodeling characterized by increased left-ventricular volume, wall thickness and mass (p<0.05). No significant differences were found in left-ventricular ejection fraction and cardiac fibrosis but increased myocardial perfusion (p<0.01) and reduced cardiac index (p<0.05) were shown. HFS diet induced hepatic lipid accumulation with increased total lipid mass (p<0.001) and triglyceride contents (p<0.05), but also increased mitochondrial (CPT1a, MCAD; (p<0.001; p<0.05) and peroxisomal (ACO, LCAD; (p<0.05; p