Table 1.
Diet composition (g/kg, dwb) and percentage energy (E%) of the diets.
Figure 1.
Schematic illustration of the study design.
Figure 2.
Serum concentration of butyric acid.
Serum concentration (µmol/L) of butyric acid in rats fed the three dietary fibre diets for 2, 4 and 6 weeks (means±SEM, n = 7, with exception of groups pectin and fibre-free diets for 4 and 6 weeks, respectively, n = 6).
Figure 3.
Weight gain, caecal weight and pH.
A: Weight gain (g), B: weight of caecal content (g), C: caecal tissue weight (g) and D: pH in rats fed the four HFD for 2, 4 and 6 weeks (means ± SEM, n = 7). Values with different letters are significantly different, p<0.05.
Figure 4.
Organ weight and analytical markers.
A: liver weight (g), B: spleen weight (g) C: liver fat content (g), D: liver cholesterol (g) and E: liver triglyceride (g) in rats fed the four HFD for 2, 4 and 6 weeks (means ± SEM, n = 7). Values with different letters are significantly different, p<0.05.
Figure 5.
Serum concentration (µmol/L) of A: acetic acid, B: propionic acid and C: butyric acid in rats fed the four HFD for 2, 4 and 6 weeks (means ± SEM, n = 7, with exception of groups pectin and fibre-free diets for 4 and 6 weeks, respectively, n = 6). Values with different letters are significantly different, p<0.05.
Figure 6.
Caecal pools (µmol) of A: acetic acid, B: propionic acid, C: butyric acid, D: lactic acid and E: succinic acid in rats fed the four HFD for 2, 4 and 6 weeks (means ± SEM, n = 7, with exception of group guar gum diet for 6 weeks, respectively, n = 6). Values with different letters are significantly different, p<0.05.
Figure 7.
Serum concentration of succinic acid.
Concentration of succinic acid (µmol/L) in serum from rats fed the fibre-free LFD for 2 w and HFD for 2, 4 and 6 weeks (means ± SEM, n = 7, 6, 4 and 6 for LFD 2 w, HFD 2 w, 4 w and 6 w, respectively).
Figure 8.
Concentration (ng/L) of MCP-1 in portal serum in rats fed the four LFD for 2 weeks and HFD for 2, 4 and 6 weeks (means ± SEM, n = 7, with exceptions of groups fed pectin, guar gum and mixture with low-fat content for 2 weeks, fibre-free with high-fat content for 4 weeks and fibre-free and pectin with high-fat content for 6 weeks, n = 6). Values with different letters are significantly different, p<0.05.
Figure 9.
Grouping of the caecal microbiota.
Loading Bi plot of the grouping of the caecal microbiota and analytical markers in rats fed fibre-free (dots), pectin (triangles) and guar gum (squares) diets with high-fat content for 6 weeks (n = 7).
Figure 10.
Peak area of T-RFLP peaks for Akkermansia and Bacteroides in rats fed the fibre-free, pectin and guar gum diets for 6 weeks (n = 7). Values with different letters are significantly different, p<0.05.
Table 2.
Weight gain, weight of caecal content, tissue, liver and spleen (g) and caecal pH in rats fed the four test diets with low-fat or high-fat content for 2 weeks (means ± SEM, n = 7).
Table 3.
Total amount of fat (g), cholesterol (mg) and triglyceride (mg) in liver and plasma cholesterol concentration (mmol/L) in rats fed the four test diets with low-fat or high-fat content for 2 weeks (means ± SEM, n = 7).
Table 4.
Serum concentration (µmol/L) of SCFAs in rats fed the four test diets with low-fat or high-fat content for 2 weeks (means ± SEM, n = 7).
Table 5.
Caecal pools of SCFAs, lactic and succinic acids (µmol) in rats fed the four test diets with low-fat or high-fat content (means ± SEM, n = 7).