Ability of omega‐3 fatty acids to restore the impaired glucose tolerance in a mouse model for type‐2 diabetes. Different effects in male and female mice

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Abstract
Mice of both sexes were fed diets with 80 per cent animal or vegetable fat for 3 months. Half of the animals also received SuperEPA, which contains 61 % omega‐3 fatty acids. At the end of the feeding period the mice receiving animal fat had gained more weight than the controls and the mice receiving vegetable fat, and all fat diet groups, irrespective of sex or kind of diet, had become hyperglycaemic and had impaired intravenous glucose tolerance. The decay in plasma glucose during the tolerance tests was, however, significantly slower in the groups getting animal fat than in the groups getting vegetable fat. Supplementation with omega‐3 fatty acids only affected the male mice receiving the animal fat diet. Thus, these mice gained less weight, and both the hyperglycaemia and the impairment of the glucose tolerance were significantly less pronounced in this group than in the male mice fed animal fat without SuperEPA. In the groups eating fat diets, the plasma total cholesterol levels increased 50–100 per cent during the first 2 weeks of the experiment and then plateaued. In both sexes HDL‐cholesterol averaged approx. sixty‐five per cent of the total cholesterol content at the start of the experiment and was not changed significantly during the feeding period. It is concluded, that omega‐3 fatty acids do not seem to be suitable as a general means of ameliorating impaired glucose tolerance. It is further suggested that the fat‐fed mouse may be a useful animal model for further studies of the regulation of metabolism in type‐2 diabetes.