Food & Nutrition

Arab Journal of Food & Nutrition
114. Effect of Dietary Chitosan Fiber on Body Composition, Fat Deposition, and
Energy Balance in Rats Fed High-Fat Diets (2010)
Nada Mufid Abu – Kishk\ University of Jordan
Supervisor: Dr. Mousa Numan Ahmad
This study was carried out to investigate whether or not chitosan fiber
incorporated in the diet had an effect on food intake, water intake, body weight, food
efficiency, fat deposition and whole body energy balance in rats fed high fat diet for
seven weeks. The effect of silica incorporation with chitosan in the diet on the above
mentioned variables was also investigated. Forty – five male Sprague – Dawley rats
(280 20 g weight) were used. Five rats were sacrificed at the beginning of the study,
for determination of body composition and energy content whereas the remaining forty
rats were divided into eight groups (5 rats / group). Each group was fed a diet
containing 0 % chitosan or silica, 10 % chitosan, 10 % silica and 10 % chitosan +
silica in either normal fat (NF) or high fat (HF) diets. NF diets contained 4 % soybean
oil, whereas HF diet contained 4 % soybean oil + 24 % sheep tallow. Feces of each rat
were collected during the fourth and seventh weeks of this study for fat %
determination. At the end of feeding period, rats were fasted overnight, sacrificed and
analyzed for body composition and energy content.
The results of this study indicated that, compared to HF diets, feeding chitosan
diet with NF diet caused no significant differences (p > 0.05) in the final body weight
(361.4 10.06 g vs. 376.8 12.45 g), weight gain (82.36 ± 14.14 g vs. 90.36 ± 2.19),
accumulative water intake (1326.4 32.4 ml vs. 1236 60.44 ml), and food efficiency
ratio (10.16 1.91 vs. 12.26 0.44). Accumulative food intake of rats fed chitosan
diet with NF was significantly (818.56 23.56 g) higher than the similar group fed HF
diet (739.08 16.95 g). Compared to HF diets, rats fed chitosan diet with NF diet
showed significant (p < 0.05) decrease in body fat content (9.12 0.49 % vs. 12.35
0.45 %), body energy fat % (43.15 1.97 % vs. 51.48 0.91 %), final body energy
(712.81 19.41 kcal vs. 840.71 32.87 kcal), and body energy gain (180.89 19.38
kcal vs. 308.50 32.93 kcal), with corresponding decreases, in metabolizable energy
intake (ME) (2945.18 84.77 kcal vs. 3402.93 84.77 kcal), energy expenditure (EE)
(2764.28 74.81 vs. 3237.60 99.69 kcal), and energetic efficiency (6.53 0.64 %
vs. 8.63 0.79). Rats fed chitosan diet with NF showed a significant (p < 0.05)
decrease in the change of body fat content (1.14 0.49 % vs. 3.15 0.32 %, 4.54
0.46 %, 3.13 0.25 %, 4.31 0.06 %, 4.31 0.32 %, 4.37 0.65 %, respectively),
and the % of body energy fat gain (3.41 0.5 % vs. 5.78 0.44 %, 7.74 0.75 %,
6.11 0.24 %, 6.11 0.24 %, 6.97 0.13 %, 6.43 0.71 %, 6.82 0.68 % and 16
0.96 %, respectively), compared to all treatment groups (0 % chitosan or silica NF
or silica NF, 10 % silica NF, 10 % chitosan + silica NF, 0 % chitosan or silica HF, 10
% chitosan HF, 10 % silica HF and 10 % chitosan + silica HF, respectively).
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