Abstract
Menopause complications such as cardiovascular and bone diseases represent a major public health concern. We sought to determine whether a high-fat diet (HFD) can augment ovariectomy-induced bone resorption in a rat model of menopause possibly via the upregulation of the inflammatory biomarkers and dyslipidemia. Rats were either ovariectomized and fed a standard laboratory chow (model group) or were ovariectomized and fed with a HFD for 15 weeks before being sacrificed. Ovariectomy significantly (p<0.05) increased body weight, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-[alpha]) and interleukin-6 (IL-6), and biomarker of bone resorption, nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB), which were augmented by feeding animals with a HFD. This was confirmed through immunohistochemical study, where ovariectomy induced expression of p65/NF-kB protein in tibia bone sections of the model group, which were augmented by HFD. HFD augments ovariectomy-induced bone resorption through increased inflammatory biomarkers and NF-kB in rats.