ABSTRACT
A high-fructose intake is metabolically analogous to a high-fat diet. The impact of highfructose intake was investigated in spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) and hypertriacylglycerolemic (HTG) rats to find out the impact of which risk factor of metabolic syndrome - hypertension or hypertriacylglycerolemia - will cause more complications. Rats were fed a standard or a fructose diet (F60) with 60% of added fructose for 5 weeks. The F60 diet increased the total serum cholesterol content of both HTG-F60 and SHR-F60 rats. Further, in SHR-F60 it increased serum triacylglycerols, TBARS in the liver, a specific activity of NAGA in the kidney, aggravated glucose tolerance, deteriorated synaptic plasticity, and reduced somatic and dendritic responses in the hippocampus. SHR rats were more sensitive to the F60 diet, suggesting that hypertension along with a high-fructose intake result in a more pronounced disorder compared to hypertriacylglycerolemia. This work wants to draw attention to fructose-induced health risks associated with hypertension.
