Assessment of Plasma Lipids, Oxidative Stress and Non-enzymatic Antioxidants in Wistar Rats with Fructose-induced Metabolic Syndrome

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a combination of cardio-metabolic risk factors including obesity, hyperglycemia, oxidative stress, dyslipidaemia, and hypertension. Methods: This study evaluated serum malondialdehyde, vitamins C and E in Wistar rats with fructose-induced metabolic syndrome. Twenty rats were randomly divided into two groups of 10 each: the control and fructose-treated group. Metabolic syndrome was induced by the administration of 10% fructose drinking water orally. Baseline body weight, body mass index and fasting plasma glucose were measured. At the end of the experiment, rats fasted for 12 hours and blood samples were collected for the estimation of the analytes. Results: This study reveals that serum HDL-C and VLDL-C decreased significantly in Wistar rats treated with fructose. There is a significant increase in body weight, body mass index and plasma glucose in Wistar rats with fructose-induced metabolic syndrome compared with controls. Serum TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C and VLDL-C in rats with fructose fructose-induced metabolic syndrome significantly (P < 0.001, P = 0.004) increased compared with values in controls. Serum antioxidant vitamins C (22.36 ± 2.45μmol/L) and E (10.31 ± 0.64μmol/L) significantly (P < 0.001) decreased while MDA significantly (P < 0.001) increased in Wistar rats with fructose-induced metabolic syndrome compared with controls. Conclusion: The current study demonstrated that excessive fructose consumption plays important role in the pathogenesis of components of metabolic syndrome, including dyslipidaemia, hyperglycaemia, obesity and oxidative stress. Periodic evaluation of antioxidant indices in patients with metabolic syndrome, to enable counselling of patients at risk of developing oxidative damage is suggested. Further studies should be carried out to explore the possibility of using nutriceuticals that can alleviate or even cure metabolic syndrome and its components.