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Updated: Feb 13, 2026

Palatable Western-style Cafeteria Diet as a Reliable Method for Modeling Diet-induced Obesity in Rodents
Published on: November 1, 2019
Wheat-derived arabinoxylan oligosaccharides with bifidogenic properties abolishes metabolic disorders induced by
Audrey M Neyrinck1, Sophie Hiel1, Caroline Bouzin2
1Metabolism and Nutrition Research Group, Louvain Drug Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, 1200, Brussels, Belgium.
Background:
Non-digestible carbohydrates present in cereals such as fructans and arabinoxylans represent promising prebiotic nutrients to prevent the development of obesity and related metabolic disorders.
Objective And Design:
The aim of this study was to determine the corrective effects of wheat bran-derived arabinoxylan oligosaccharides in obese mice fed a western diet (WD). WD was given for 4 weeks before wheat bran extract (WBE) supplementation (5%) for an additional 4 weeks, whereas a control group received the standard diet.
Results:
Bifidogenic effect of WBE was evidenced by an induction of both Bifidobacterium animalis and Bifidobacterium pseudolongum in the caecal content. WBE supplementation normalised WD-induced fat-mass expansion, steatosis, hypercholesterolemia, hyperleptinemia, hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia reaching the values of control mice. The reduced glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) release observed in WD + WBE mice may be a protective mechanism in terms of reducing adipose tissue storage, hepatic steatosis and glucose homoeostasis.
Conclusion:
We found that WBE completely abolished WD-induced metabolic disorders. Those results might be useful to take into account nutritional advices to treat obesity and related metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia and fatty liver diseases when obesity was already established.
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