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Carbohydrates, glycemic index and diabetes mellitus

Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, e-selectin and C-reactive protein levels in response to 4-week very-high-fructose or -glucose diets

Abstract

Background/objectives:

High intake of added sweeteners is considered to have a causal role in the pathogenesis of cardiometabolic disorders. Especially, high-fructose intake is regarded as potentially harmful to cardiometabolic health. It may cause not only weight gain but also low-grade inflammation, which represents an independent risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In particular, fructose has been suggested to induce plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) expression in the liver and to increase circulating inflammatory cytokines. We therefore aimed to investigate, whether high-fructose diet has an impact on PAI-1, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), e-selectin and C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations in healthy humans.

Subjects/methods:

We studied 20 participants (12 males and 8 females) of the TUebingen FRuctose Or Glucose study. This is an exploratory, parallel, prospective, randomized, single-blinded, outpatient, hypercaloric, intervention study. The participants had a mean age of 30.9±2.1 years and a mean body mass index of 26.0±0.5 kg/m2 and they received 150 g of either fructose or glucose per day for 4 weeks.

Results:

There were neither significant changes of PAI-1, MCP-1, e-selectin and CRP after fructose (n=10) and glucose (n=10) intervention nor treatment effects (all P>0.2). Moreover, we did not observe longitudinal associations of the inflammatory parameters with triglycerides, liver fat, visceral fat and body weight in the fructose group.

Conclusions:

Temporary high-fructose intake does not seem to cause inflammation in apparently healthy people in this secondary analysis of a small feeding trial.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Anna Bury, Barbara Horrer, Ellen Kollmar, Andreas Vosseler and Heike Runge for expert technical assistance. The study was supported by a grant (Grant no. 4 AI) from the Zentrum Ernährungsmedizin Tübingen-Hohenheim. Funding did not include industrial sponsorship.

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Correspondence to G Silbernagel.

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Competing interests

GS received a research grant from Unilever, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Silbernagel, G., Machann, J., Häring, HU. et al. Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, e-selectin and C-reactive protein levels in response to 4-week very-high-fructose or -glucose diets. Eur J Clin Nutr 68, 97–100 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2013.228

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