Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

4883

Date

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Health and Sport Science

Concentration

Nutrition Science

Committee Chair

Marie van der Merwe

Committee Member

Thomas R Sutter

Committee Member

Melissa Puppa

Abstract

Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) physiology is negatively affected by chronic glucocorticoid (GC) usage, and is exacerbated by a "Western" diet. However, the impact of omega-3 supplimentation into a "Western" diet, during chronic GC usage, remains unknown. Therefore, we determined the impact of both diets ("Western" vs omega-3 supplimented) in conjunction with chronic GCs, on VAT physiology. Sixty-four male C57BL/6 mice (n=8-16/group) were subjected to 4-weeks of dietary intervention (high fat lard [HFL] vs. high fat fish oil [HFO], with or without prednisolone [40mg/kg/m2] daily). We hypothesized that omega-3 supplimentation would protect VAT physiology from chronic GC-induced negative effects. Overall, both HFO groups gained less body weight, displayed less VAT and smaller adipocytes, retained a greater percentage of M2-polarized macrophages, and exhibited beneficial alterations in gene expression as compared to both HFL groups. Our data indicate that VAT physiology is protected by an increase in dietary omega-3s, irrispective of GC usage.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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