High-Fat High-Sugar Diet Induces Polycystic Ovary Syndrome in a Rodent Model

ABSTRACT: Obesity has been linked with a host of metabolic and reproductive disorders including polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). While a distinct link exists between obesity and PCOS, the exact pathogenesis of the disease remains less understood and limited research has explored the impact of diet on the development of PCOS. With the primary symptoms of PCOS including hyperandrogenism, anovulation, and polycystic ovaries, most animal models utilize androgen treatment to effectively induce PCOS. However, these models fail to address the underlying causes of disease symptoms and do not effectively demonstrate the metabolic features of the disease such as hyperinsulinemia. Here, we present a novel rodent model of diet-induced obesity that recapitulates both the metabolic and reproductive phenotypes of human PCOS. In utilizing a high-fat high-sugar (HFHS) diet, we have created a model of PCOS that allows for the study of metabolic parameters and their impact on ovarian follicle development and reproductive health. Animals on the HFHS diet not only demonstrated signs of metabolic impairment, but they also developed polycystic ovaries and experienced irregular estrous cycling marked by an extended period spent in estrus. Though hyperandrogenism was not characteristic of HFHS diet animals as a group, testosterone levels were predictive of a polycystic ovarian morphology. Importantly, PCOS was induced similarly to the disease etiology in humans, allowing this model to offer the unique opportunity to study PCOS at its genesis rather than following the development of disease symptoms.

ORGANISM(S): Rattus norvegicus

PROVIDER: GSE83220 | GEO | 2017/06/01

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA325290

REPOSITORIES: GEO