Nutrition research (New York, N.Y.)Feb 18, 2015

Higher fat in a complex diet lowers blood toxins and increases gut mucus cells in mice

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Updated Apr 4, 2026

Abstract

Only the very high-fat diet (vHFD) group significantly increased body weight and fat mass compared to the low-fat diet (LFD) group.

Mice on the moderate high-fat diet (mHFD) developed metabolic endotoxemia and inflammation, while vHFD mice did not.
vHFD mice exhibited increased plasma levels of triglycerides, leptin, and adiponectin, along with higher liver lipid concentrations.
Increased numbers of goblet cells were observed in all intestinal segments of vHFD mice compared to both LFD and mHFD groups.
The mHFD group showed a decrease in lactobacilli and reduced levels of occludin phosphorylation in the colon.
No clear associations were found between dietary lipid amounts and the extent of endotoxemia, inflammation, or physiological changes.

Simplified

The impacts of high-fat diets (HFDs) on the onset of metabolic endotoxemia and low-grade inflammation are well established in rodent models. However, the dose-effect of dietary lipid intakes on these parameters is not known. We hypothesized that increasing dietary lipid amounts could be linked to parallel increases of endotoxemia, low-grade inflammation, and metabolic and intestinal alterations. Six-week-old male C57BL/6J mice were fed a low-fat diet (LFD, 2.6 wt% of lipids), a moderate HFD (mHFD, 22 wt% of lipids), or a very HFD (vHFD, 45 wt% of lipids) formulated mainly using chow ingredients and milk fat. After 12 weeks, white adipose tissues, liver, intestine, distal colon contents, and plasma were collected. Only vHFD mice significantly increased body weight and fat mass vs LFD mice. This was associated with increases of plasma concentrations of triglycerides, leptin and adiponectin, and liver lipids. No such differences were observed between LFD and mHFD mice. However, mHFD developed metabolic endotoxemia and inflammation, unlike vHFD mice. In turn, vHFD mice showed more goblet cells in all intestine segments vs both other groups and a decrease of Bacteroides-Prevotella in their microbiota vs LFD mice. Finally, mHFD mice colon exhibited a decrease in lactobacilli and in the levels of occludin phosphorylation. Altogether, using complex HFD, no associations were observed between dietary lipid amounts and the magnitude of endotoxemia, inflammation, and physiological alterations developed. These results reveal the impact of the diet composition on intestinal goblet cells and mucus coat, bringing new insights about further consequences on HFD-induced metabolic disorders.

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Higher fat in a complex diet lowers blood toxins and increases gut mucus cells in mice

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