Effects of a Standard American Diet and an Anti-inflammatory Diet in Male and Female Mice

Abstract

Significance

Obesity may increase susceptibility to chronic pain often due to poor diet. Diet has potential to be used as treatment for pain. The current study investigates the use of a novel translatable diet to act as a preventative (i.e., prior to surgery) or an intervention (i.e., following an injury).

Background

Obesity and chronic pain are prevalent concerns. Pain is frequently experienced in weight bearing joints, but is common in other areas of the body as well, suggesting other factors. Poor diet often contributes to obesity and can directly influence the immune system. We have shown that poor diet prolongs recovery from inflammatory injury. Therefore, our goal was to determine if poor-quality diet-induced consequences could be prevented or reversed by an anti-inflammatory diet.

Methods

A Standard American Diet (SAD) was developed to investigate the effects of poor diet on pain. The SAD includes amounts of refined sugar, carbohydrates and fats that better model the typical American diet, as compared to high-fat diets. We developed an Anti-inflammatory Diet (AID) to explore whether the effects of the SAD could reversed or whether the AID would enhance recovery prophylactically. The AID was developed using ingredients (EGCG, sulforaphane, resveratrol, curcumin, and ginseng) with known anti-inflammatory properties. Following 15 weeks of diet (SAD, AID or regular (REG)) exposure, male and female mice underwent inflammatory injury, at which point some animals had their diets switched for the remainder of the study.

Results

Animals who consumed the SAD showed longer recovery compared to the AID and REG-fed animals. Animals switched off the SAD had faster recovery times, with AID-fed animals recovering as fast as REG-fed animals.

Conclusions

Poor diet prolonged recovery from inflammatory injury. Substitution of SAD with AID or REG promoted faster recovery. These findings suggest diet can be used as a non-pharmacological intervention following injury.

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