Dietary CLA decreased weight loss and extended survival following the onset of kidney failure in NZB/W F1 mice.

In an earlier study, we showed that feeding CLA immediately after weaning prolonged survival of NZB/W F1 mice after onset of proteinuria. In the present study, the feeding of CLA was delayed until mice had developed proteinuria. Thirty NZB/W F1 mice were fed a regular rodent chow after weaning. Urine samples were collected to detect proteinuria. Once a mouse was proteinuria positive, it was then randomly assigned to a 0.5% CLA supplement semipurified diet or a control diet (supplement 0.5% corn oil). The next proteinuria positive mouse was then assigned to the opposite diet to which the first mouse was assigned. Mice fed the control diet lost 25% more body weight (13.0 g) than mice fed the CLA diet (9.7 g). Moreover, CLA-fed mice survived an average 1.7-fold longer (148 d) than mice fed the control diet (89 d) after the onset of proteinuria. This follow-up study confirmed that dietary CLA had a beneficial effect in the autoimmune NZB/W F1 mouse. In summary, the cachectic symptom of systemic lupus erythematosus was decreased by dietary CLA and survival days were increased over control group.