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- All Subjects: Physiology
- Creators: Johnston, Carol
and kidney disease. However, the impact of short term high fat intake on the etiology of kidney disease has not been well-studied. Therefore, this study examined the impact of a six week HFD (60% fat) on kidney structure and function in young male Sprague-Dawley rats. Previous studies have shown that these animals develop indices of diabetes compared to rats fed a standard rodent chow (5% fat) for six weeks. The hypothesis of this study is that six weeks of HFD will lead to early stages of kidney disease as evidenced by morphological and functional changes in the kidney. Alterations in morphology were determined by measuring structural changes in the kidneys (changes in mass, fatty acid infiltration, and structural damage). Alterations in kidney function were measured by analyzing urinary biomarkers of oxidative RNA/DNA damage, renal tissue lipid peroxidation, urinary markers of impaired kidney function (urinary protein, creatinine, and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)), markers of inflammation (tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) and interleukin 6 (IL-6)), as well as cystatin C, a plasma biomarker of kidney function. The results of these studies determined that short term HFD intake is not sufficient to induce early stage kidney disease. Beyond increases in renal mass, there were no significant differences between the markers of renal structure and function in the HFD and standard rodent chow-fed rats.
Circadian misalignments in terms of eat and sleep cycles, common occurrences among college students, are linked to adverse health outcomes. Time-restricted feeding, a form of intermittent fasting, may offer an exciting, non-pharmacologic approach to improve the health of this population by restricting eating to feeding windows that align with circadian biology. This study aims to fill a gap in the literature regarding the effect of early time-restricted feeding (eTRF) on college students, particularly in regard to diet quality, diet self-efficacy, and sleep quality. To test the hypothesis that eTRF would lead to an increase in all three variables, a 4-wk randomized-controlled, parallel arm trial was conducted. Thirty-five healthy college students were randomly assigned to one of two groups: the intervention group (TRF) was instructed to adhere to an 8-h feeding window aligned with the light cycle (9 am to 5 pm), and the control group (CON) was instructed to adhere to a 12-h feeding window typical of college students (10 am to 10pm). The eTRF diet was consumed ad libitum, and the participants were not instructed to avoid compensatory hyperphagia. The results showed a strong, reverse effect of eTRF on diet quality: fasting had a highly significant association with decreased diet quality. The results suggest that, under free-living conditions, college students practicing eTRF are more likely to compensate for prolonged fasting with unhealthy eating and snacking.