Development of a new modified western diet to induce NASH with obesity and insulin resistance in mice

Background & aims: The alarming increase of obesity becomes a major global health issue. Obesity is often associated with insulin resistance, type II diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and may result in the metabolic syndrome. There are many contributing factors to obesity, but diet is one of the most relevant. Feeding studies with rodents like mice were often used to investigate the mechanisms leading to obesity and its associated co-morbidities, but the applied diets often did not induce the same phenotype like in human metabolic syndrome. High fat diets with saturated fatty acids induce ob…