Effect of consuming high-fat diet on the morphological parameters of adrenal gland

The incidence of obesity and obesity-assosiated pathologies continues to increase with profound adverse effects on health status in the developed countries.

We aimed to investigate the effect of high fat diet on the adrenal gland morphology.

We fed the mice with either high-fat diet (60 % kcal from fat) or low-fat diet (10 % kcal from fat) for nine weeks. Unbiased stereological methods were used to evaluate the adrenal gland morphology. The sections were evaluated using Cavalieri's method and volume fraction approach. We calculated mean volume of adrenal gland, mean volume of adrenal medulla, VVadrenal medulla/adrenal gland, mean diameter of cromaffin cells, number of chromaffin cells in per unit volume (NVcc mm‒3), total number of cromaffin cells, VVzona glomerulosa/adrenal cortex, VVzona fasciculata/adrenal cortex , VVzona reticulosa/adrenal cortex.

The weight of adrenal gland, body weight intraperitoneal adipose tissue and adrenal gland weight in the obese mice significantly increased when compared with the control group. No changes were observed in the mean volume of adrenal gland, mean volume of adrenal medulla, VVzona glomerulosa/adrenal cortex, VVzona fasciculata/adrenal cortex, total number of cromaffin cells and diameter of cromaffin cells. However, NVcc mm-3 and VVzona reticulosa/adrenal cortex in the obese mice considerably increased compared with the control group.

The present results suggest that high fat diet adversely affects the adrenal gland morphology (Tab. 2, Fig. 6, Ref. 28).