A Western-type diet attenuates pulmonary hypertension with heart failure and cardiac cachexia in rats

Western-type diets (WD) constitute risk factors for disease but may have distinct effects in heart failure (HF) with cardiac cachexia (CC). We evaluated hemodynamic, metabolic, and inflammatory effects of short-term WD intake in pulmonary hypertension (PH) with CC. Male Wistar rats randomly received 60 mg · kg(-1) monocrotaline (M) or vehicle (C) and consumed either a 5.4-kcal · g(-1) WD (35% animal fat, 35% simple carbohydrate, 20% protein, 0.4% Na(+)) or a 2.9-kcal · g(-1) (3% vegetable fat, 60% complex carbohydrate, 16% protein, 0.25% Na(+)) normal diet (ND) for 5 wk. Mortality, energy intake, body weight (BW), metabolism, hemodynamics, histology, apoptosis, gene expression, transcription factors, and plasma cytokines were evaluated. Compared with the C-ND group, the M-ND group had PH, HF, and mortality that were significantly attenuated in M-WD. The extent of myocardial remodeling and apoptosis was higher in M-ND than in C-ND but lower in M-WD than in M-ND, while conversely, energy intake, BW, cholesterol, and TG plasma concentrations were lower in M-ND than in C-ND but higher in M-WD than in M-ND. M-ND had increased myocardial NF-κB transcription factor activity, endothelin-1, and cytokine overexpression and higher circulating cytokine concentrations than C-ND, which were lower in M-WD than in M-ND. PPARα activity, however, was lower in M-ND, but not in M-WD, compared with the respective C groups. WD attenuated PH and CC, ameliorating survival, myocardial function, metabolism, and inflammation, through transcription factor modulation, suggesting a beneficial role in CC.