Effect of high fat low carbohydrate diet on blood pressure and the development of cardiac hypertrophy in spontaneously hypertensive rats

The current dietary recommendation for a healthy heart and prevention of heart disease focuses mostly on low fat and high carbohydrate foods. However, previous studies have shown high fat diet may be able to attenuate cardiac hypertrophy and diets high in carbohydrate may increase blood pressure. These results raise the question as to the cardiovascular effect of a diet high in carbohydrate in patients with hypertension. The purposes of this study are to: (1) observe the effect of a high fat low carbohydrate diet on the development of cardiac hypertrophy on SHR; and (2) determine whether a high fat low carbohydrate diet can reduce blood pressure on Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (SHR). Six-week-old male Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats and SHR were fed with either high fat low carbohydrate (HFLC) or low fat high carbohydrate (LFHC, control) diet ad libitum for 10 weeks, after which, blood pressure were measured and insulin tolerance test (ITT) was conducted. Heart weight was standardized to tibia length to produce an index of cardiac hypertrophy. It was found that blood pressure was significantly reduced in SHR fed with HFLC compared to LFHC diet without the attenuation or prevention of cardiac hypertrophy. ITT result suggested that the SHR was not insulin resistant and the diet only affected the WKY group where the WKY-LFHC group was more insulin resistant. In conclusion, although blood pressure was reduced with the HFLC diet, it was still insufficient to prevent the pathological stimulus for the development of cardiac hypertrophy.