Abstract
Scope:
Coconut oil (CO) diets remain controversial due to the possible association with metabolic disorder and obesity. This study investigated the metabolic effects of a low amount of CO supplementation.
Methods and results:
Swiss male mice were assigned to be supplemented orally during 8 weeks with 300μL of water for the control group (CV), 100 or 300μL of coconut oil (CO100 and CO300) and 100 or 300μL of soybean oil (SO100 and SO300). CO led to anxious behavior, increase in body weight gain and adiposity. In the hypothalamus, CO and SO increased cytokines expression and pJNK, pNFKB and TLR4 levels. Nevertheless, the adipose tissue presented increased macrophage infiltration, TNF-α and IL-6 after CO and SO consumption. IL-1B and CCL2 expression, pJNK and pNFKB levels increased only in CO300. In the hepatic tissue, CO increased TNF-α and chemokines expression. Neuronal cell line (mHypoA-2/29) exposed to serum from CO and SO mice showed increased NFKB migration to the nucleus, TNF-α and NFKBia expression, but were prevented by inhibitor of TLR4 (TAK-242).
Conclusions:
These results show that a low dose CO change the behavioral pattern, induces inflammatory pathway activation, TLR4 expression in healthy mice and stimulates the pro-inflammatory response through a TLR4-mediated mechanism. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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