UC Davis

Trans vaccenic acid (TVA, trans11-18 : 1) and cis9, trans11-CLA (also known as rumenic acid; RA) have received widespread attention as potentially beneficial trans-FA due to their putative health benefits, including anti-diabetic properties. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of beef fat naturally enriched with TVA and RA on parameters related to glucose homoeostasis and associated metabolic markers in diet-induced obese (DIO) mice. Thirty-six male C57BL/6J mice (8 weeks old) were fed for 19 weeks with either a control low-fat diet (CLF), a control high-fat diet (CHF), or a TVA+RA-enriched high-fat diet (EHF). Compared with CLF, feeding either CHF or EHF resulted in adverse metabolic outcomes associated with high-fat diets, including adiposity, impaired glucose control and hepatic steatosis. However, the EHF diet induced a significantly higher liver weight TAG content and elevated plasma alanine transaminase levels compared with the CHF diet. Collectively, the findings from this study suggest that EHF does not improve glucose tolerance and worsens liver steatosis in DIO mice. However, the adverse effects of EHF on the liver could be in part related to the presence of other trans-FA in the enriched beef fat.