A high-calorie diet attenuates cachexia and adipose tissue inflammation in monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertensive rats.

A High-calorie Diet Attenuates Cachexia and Adipose Tissue Inflammation in Monocrotaline- induced Pulmonary Hypertensive Rats Introduction: Cardiac cachexia is a catabolic state in which adipose tissue atrophy is accompanied by a proinflammatory state. The molecular mechanisms underlying proinflammatory activation remain, however, largely unknown. In this experimental study, the effect of a high-calorie diet was ana- lyzed in the advanced stages of monocro- taline-induced pulmonary hypertension (PH). Methods: Male Wistar rats (180-200 g; n=28) were randomly injected with either monocrotaline (MCT; 60 mg/kg; sc) or vehi- cle. Each group was then assigned to either a regular diet (2.9 kcal/g) or a high-calorie diet with a high fat and simple carbohydrate content (5.4 kcal/g). Twenty-four to 32 days after injection, adipose tissue was collected for morphometric, histological and molecu- lar analysis. The proportional weight of the gonadal fat pad was used as an adiposity index. Detection of macrophages in adipose