Effect of obesity-related supplementation on hypertension and system dynamics in hypertensive broiler chickens

Fructose, a high-energy food present in high-fructose corn syrup (HFS), is considered the principal source of many disorders among others obesity and hypertension. Conversely, <i>Momordica charantia</i> (Mo) is used as a nutraceutical supplement to treat obesity, diabetes and dyslipidemia and as an antihypertensive compound. These critical challenges to public health and biomedical research, has been widely studied in animal models including broiler chicken for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). One of the reasons for its wide use is the sensitivity of broiler chickens to developing PAH under normal and induced conditions due to this strain’s rapid growth and reduced vascular capacity. The mobilization and subsequent deposition of energy in both humans and non-human animals are complex. Thus, the effect of obesity-related supplementation and hypertension in animals and humans should be evaluated with system dynamics approach due to its potential to deepen our holistic understanding of the biological system. Therefore, this work evaluated the persistent effects of low-dose, short-term obesity-related Mo and HFS supplementation on system dynamics and hypertension in hypertensive broiler chickens. Our results have shown that the increase in feed consumption in chickens consuming HFS or the efficient conversion pathway in chickens consuming Mo drive the formation of new biomass that promoted a high fraction increase and weight gain, and an improvement in pulmonary arterial hypertension in the hypertensive broiler chickens which were more accentuated in HFS.

果糖作为高果糖玉米糖浆（high-fructose corn syrup, HFS）中的高能量成分，被认为是引发肥胖、高血压等多种疾病的主要诱因。与之相对，苦瓜（Momordica charantia，简称Mo）常被用作营养补充剂，用于治疗肥胖、糖尿病及血脂异常，同时也是一种降压活性成分。这类对公共卫生与生物医学研究构成严峻挑战的问题，已在多种动物模型中得到广泛研究，其中包括用于肺动脉高压（pulmonary arterial hypertension, PAH）研究的肉鸡模型。该模型被广泛应用的原因之一在于，该品系肉鸡生长速度过快且血管容量代偿能力不足，因此在正常及诱导条件下均易发生肺动脉高压。能量在人类及非人类动物体内的动员与后续沉积过程极为复杂。因此，鉴于系统动力学方法能够帮助我们深化对生物系统的整体性认知，应当采用该方法来评估肥胖相关营养补充及高血压在动物与人体中的作用效应。因此，本研究针对患肺动脉高压的肉鸡，评估了低剂量、短期肥胖相关的苦瓜与高果糖玉米糖浆补充剂对其系统动力学及高血压状态的持续影响。研究结果显示，饲喂高果糖玉米糖浆的肉鸡采食量增加，以及饲喂苦瓜的肉鸡体内存在高效转化通路，这两种机制均会促进新生生物量的形成，进而推动体成分占比大幅提升与体重增长，并改善患肺动脉高压的肉鸡的病症，其中以高果糖玉米糖浆组的改善效果更为显著。