ABC | Volume 113, Nº5, November 2019

Original Article Muniz et al. Metabolic disorders in a modified dyslipidemia model Arq Bras Cardiol. 2019; 113(5):896-902 hepatic sinusoid, and capillary strands; conserved vascular distribution, intact portal triads, with portal vein branches, hepatic artery, and bile duct. Discussion Dyslipidemia was triggered in rats fed a diet with 20% lard and 1% cholesterol, in six weeks, with increased liver weight, liver injury, and inflammatory infiltrate. In the present study, lipids contributed with 44% of high-fat diet energy, a percentage close to that reported for high-fat diet consumed by overweight or obese individuals (43% to 55%). 17-19 In previous animal studies, lipid contribution ranged from 67% to 75% of high-fat diet energy. 8,9 Therefore, these diets with very high contents of lipids do not reproduce, realistically, the high-fat diets consumed by humans. The daily recommendation for human adults is 20% to 35% energy from lipids, according to the AMDR (Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Ranges), considering that high lipid intake indicates a greater risk of obesity and associated disorders. 20 Higher body weight gain in the HLD group can be explained by its higher food consumption (17.6 g/day/rat) compared to the HL/HCD group (13.8 g/day/rat) since the energy density of the diets was similar (4.26 kcal/g). Higher weight gain was reported in a previous study with mice fed a high-fat and high-cholesterol diet (energy density = 4.27 kcal/g) for 12 weeks, compared to the control group. 12 Despite the higher body weight gain, the HLD group did not differ from the STD group regarding liver weight (Table 2). The relative liver weight in the HL/HCD group was very high, above 5% of the body weight of these animals. Figure 1 – Morphological evaluation of the liver of Wistar rats fed high-fat diets for six weeks. STD (standard diet): preserved hepatic tissue architecture with conserved vascular distribution. HLD (high-lard diet): preserved hepatic tissue architecture with mild and uniform hepatic steatosis (black arrows), mild inflammatory infiltrate (white arrows), and mild passive hyperemia (arrowheads). HL/HCD (high-lard and high-cholesterol diet): altered tissue architecture with moderate hepatic steatosis, fat microvesicles and macrovesicles (black arrows), and marked inflammatory infiltrate (white arrows). The bars indicate 100 μm at 100x magnification (left panel) and 20 μm at 400x magnification (right panel). 899