Endocrine Abstracts

The control of obesity and the regulation of its components are strongly linked to nutrition. Thus, low calorie diets restricted in carbohydrates and lipids are becoming increasingly suitable for combating the complications of obesity. In the present work, we propose to report the short-term repercussions of dietary carbohydrate and lipid restriction on the weight parameters of the obese gerbil. Our experiment was undertaken on a species of gerbil (Gerbillus tarabuli) and lasted 5 months. Gerbil is a wild animal from the Algerian desert. In captivity, this rodent subjected to a high carbohydrate high fat diet, develops metabolic disorders which are characterized by visceral obesity. The obese animals were subjected to carbohydrate and lipid restriction for 8 weeks. Gerbils submitted to carbohydrate and lipid restriction diet show a significant decrease in body masse (approximately 10%), in subcutaneous and epididymal adipose tissues weight (approximately 50%) compared to obese animals. However, no significant difference was recorded for mesenteric adipose tissue weight for the two groups. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that short-term carbohydrate and lipid restriction diet decreases body weight and reduces adiposity in obese gerbils.