Improved intestinal form and function in diabetic rats fed long-term with a polyunsaturated fatty acid diet.

Short-term (two weeks) feeding of isocaloric diets supplemented with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) is useful for the prevention or treatment of the enhanced uptake of glucose which occurs in rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes, as compared with animals fed a diet supplemented with saturated fatty acids (SFA). The study was undertaken to compare the effects of long-term (seven weeks) feeding PUFA or SFA to diabetic rats. We have previously reported that diabetic animals fed PUFA had superior body weight gain, lower hemoglobin AlC values, lower plasma cholesterol and triglyceride levels, lower percentage decline in glucose (K value) following intravenous glucose tolerance testing, near-normal values of hepatic microsomal glucose-6-phosphatase activity and near-normal concentrations of 18:2(6) and 20:4(6) in liver microsomal phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylserine. However, jejunal and ileal uptake of varying concentrations of glucose were similar in the three diet groups. Thus, the potential long-term beneficial effects of feeding diets with a high PUFA/SFA ratio probably have their explanation in metabolic effects distant to their uptake by the intestine.