Investigation of the effects of short, medium, long chain fatty acids on growth hormone, insulin like growth factor 1, insulin and hormone sensitive lipase levels in rats

There are few data on the effects of combined short (SCFA), medium (MCFA) and long (LCFA) chain fatty acids on serum/tissue concentrations of hormones such as growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), insulin and hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL). The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of combined use of short, medium and long chain fatty acids on GH, IGF, insulin and HSL secretion. For this purpose, butyric acid (BA) from short chain fatty acids, caprylic acid (CA) from medium chain fatty acids and oleic acid (OA) from long chain fatty acids were used. In the study, 56 male wistar rats were used. The rats were randomly divided into 8 subgroups as control group, butyric acid group (BA), caprylic acid group (CA), oleic acid group (OA), butyric acid+caprylic acid group (BA+CA), butyric acid+oleic acid group (BA+OA), caprylic acid+oleic acid group (CA+OA) and butyric acid+caprylic acid+oleic acid group (BA+CA+OA) and administered orally to rats for 21 days. At the end of the study, GH, IGF, insulin and HSL levels were determined by ELISA method in serum samples obtained from rats. BA administration decreased GH, IGF1, insulin levels, while no significant effect on HSL level was observed. CA administration increased HSL levels, but had no significant effect on GH, insulin and IGF-1 levels. OA treatment increased GH, HSL levels, but had no significant effect on IGF-1 and insulin levels. CA treatment increased glucose levels, while BA and OA treatments had no significant effect on glucose levels. BA, CA and OA treatments had no effect on weight. Combined administration of fatty acids increased GH levels, but decreased insulin, IGF-1 and HSL levels. In conclusion, more long-term and comprehensive studies are needed to observe the effects of short, medium and long chain fatty acids on GH, IGF-1, HSL and insulin.