Effects of intermittent fasting on high fat diet induced neuronal changes in rat hippocampus proper: molecular, histological and immunohistochemical study

Oct 21, 2025Ultrastructural pathology

Intermittent fasting’s effects on brain cell changes caused by a high-fat diet in the memory area of rats

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Abstract

Intermittent fasting improved hippocampal neuronal structure in male Wistar albino rats fed a high-fat diet for 24 weeks.

Adolescent mice show increased vulnerability to high-fat diet effects on learning and memory.
HFD exposure is associated with inflammation and neuronal structural changes in the hippocampus.
Intermittent fasting may reverse HFD-induced neuronal alterations by enhancing the Nrf2 signaling pathway.
Neuronal oxidative stress is improved with intermittent fasting, indicated by increased 5HT expression and reduced astrocyte numbers.
Intermittent fasting could serve as a novel method to mitigate high-fat diet-induced neuronal changes.

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Recent research indicates that adolescence is a time when adolescent mice are more susceptible to the effects of a short-term high-fat diet (HFD) on hippocampus-dependent learning and memory processes. Furthermore, a major characteristic in HFD-induced obesity is the development of inflammation. "intermittent fasting" (IF) promotes cellular and molecular Noplasticity. To investigate how rat hippocampal neuronal alterations brought on by (HFD) improved by (IF). The Department of Medical Histology at South Valley University's Faculty of Medicine was the site of this experiment. There were sixty male Wistar albino rats ( = 15) split up into four equal groups.GroupӀ was given a regular diet(24 weeks); GroupӀӀ was given HFD (24 weeks); GroupӀӀӀ was exposed to an IF regimen; and GroupӀV was fed on HFD (24 weeks) followed by (8 weeks) of IF regimen. The hippocampus from rats of all groups was dissected, fixed, sectioned then stained by; Hx&E, gallocyanin, immunohistochemical procedures for light microscope examination and ultrasections made for electron microscope examination. Real Time PCR using Nrf2 primer carried out. This study reported that the IF ameliorated the HFD-induced neuronal structural changes of hippocampus. In addition, the IF improved the neuronal oxidative stress through activation of Nrf2 signaling pathway. Also it improved neuronal functional deterioration revealed by increasing the expression of 5HT and decreasing the expression of astrocytes number. Conclusions: IF could be used as a novel and safe method for ameliorating the HFD- induced neuronal changes by modulating the Nrf2 signaling pathway. n

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Effects of intermittent fasting on high fat diet induced neuronal changes in rat hippocampus proper: molecular, histological and immunohistochemical study

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