Exercise and a High Fat Diet Synergistically Increase the Pantothenic Acid Requirement in Rats

It is thought that both exercise and dietary composition increase the utilization of, and thus the requirement for, certain water-soluble vitamins. However, there have been no studies evaluating the combined impacts of exercise and dietary composition on vitamin utilization. In this experiment, rats were fed a pantothenic acid (PaA)-restricted (0.004 g PaA-Ca/kg diet) diet containing 5% (ordinary amount of dietary fat) or 20% fat (high fat), and were forced to swim until exhaustion every other day for 22 d. PaA status was assessed by urinary excretion, which reflects body stores of water-soluble vitamins. The urinary excretion of PaA in rats fed a 5% fat diet was not affected by swimming (5% fat + non-swimming vs. 5% fat + swim; p>0.05). Excretion of PaA was decreased by the high-fat diet (5% fat + non-swim vs. 20% fat + non-swim; p<0.05) and synergistically decreased by exercise (20% fat + non-swim vs. 20% fat + swim; p<0.05). There was a significant interaction between exercise and a high-fat diet. Plasma PaA concentrations showed changes similar to those seen for urinary excretion. The experiment was then repeated using rats fed a PaA-sufficient (0.016 g PaA-Ca/kg diet) diet, and PaA excretion was again synergistically decreased by the combination of exercise and a high-fat diet (p<0.05). These results suggest that the combination of exercise and a high-fat diet synergistically increases the requirement for PaA.