A weekly alternating diet between caloric restriction and medium fat protects the liver from fatty liver development in middle-aged C57BL/6J mice

SCOPE: We investigated whether a novel dietary intervention consisting of an every-other-week calorie-restricted diet could prevent nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) development induced by a medium-fat (MF) diet. METHODS AND RESULTS: Nine-week-old male C57BL/6J mice received either a (i) control (C), (ii) 30E% calorie restricted (CR), (iii) MF (25E% fat), or (iv) intermittent (INT) diet, a diet alternating weekly between 40E% CR and an ad libitum MF diet until sacrifice at the age of 12 months. The metabolic, morphological, and molecular features of NAFLD were examined. The INT diet resulted in healthy metabolic and morphological features as displayed by the continuous CR diet: glucose tolerant, low hepatic triglyceride content, low plasma alanine aminotransferase. In contrast, the C- and MF-exposed mice with high body weight developed signs of NAFLD. However, the gene expression profiles of INT-exposed mice differed to those of CR-exposed mice and showed to be more similar with those of C- and MF-exposed mice with a comparable body weight. CONCLUSIONS: Our study reveals that the INT diet maintains metabolic health and reverses the adverse effects of the MF diet, thus effectively prevents the development of NAFLD in 12-month-old male C57BL/6J mice.