TABLE 3.

Blood parameters

	Baseline	Diet	Acute Term	Short Term	Intermediate Term	Long Term
Leptin (ng/ml)	3.78 ± 0.50	HFD	17.74 ± 1.03	26.38 ± 0.73	34.16 ± 0.82b	34.79 ± 0.91
		WD	14.87 ± 1.04	26.25 ± 0.98	32.97 ± 0.73a	36.14 ± 0.77
		HCD	14.32 ± 1.37	26.80 ± 1.04	30.74 ± 0.75	33.78 ± 1.29
Insulin (ng/ml)	0.23 ± 0.02	HFD	1.60 ± 0.25	1.94 ± 0.27	1.72 ± 0.40	1.74 ± 0.29
		WD	1.86 ± 0.31	2.57 ± 0.26	2.02 ± 0.24	2.46 ± 0.40
		HCD	3.37 ± 0.48dg	5.38 ± 0.67eh	3.01 ± 0.31cf	3.34 ± 0.37g
TG (mg/dl)	82 ± 12	HFD	143 ± 11	130 ± 13	133 ± 11	131 ± 18
		WD	128 ± 7	158 ± 15	150 ± 13	195 ± 31f
		HCD	202 ± 21cf	212 ± 24cg	168 ± 12	234 ± 27h
CHO (mmol/l)		HFD	1.57 ± 0.14	1.15 ± 0.08	1.55 ± 0.13	1.93 ± 0.17
	1.28 ± 0.08	WD	1.45 ± 0.13	1.30 ± 0.34	1.68 ± 0.09	2.34 ± 0.18
		HCD	1.45 ± 0.09	1.57 ± 0.14	1.87 ± 0.13	3.10 ± 0.43f

Plasma parameters were assayed for 8-week-old rats fed standard rodent chow for 2 weeks (Baseline). The same parameters were assayed in animals fed either low-fat/high-carbohydrate diet (HCD), high-fat diet (HFD), or Western diet (WD) for 1 day or 1 week (acute term), 4 or 8 weeks (short term), 16 or 24 weeks (intermediate term), and 32 or 48 weeks (long term). Data are means ± SE of n = 14–18 animals per group per time point (except baseline; n = 6).

Abbreviations: CHO, cholesterol; TG, triacylglycerol.

^aP < 0.05 vs. HCD at same age.

^bP < 0.01 vs. HCD at same age.

^cP < 0.05 vs. Western diet at same age.

^dP < 0.01 vs. Western diet at same age.

^eP < 0.001 vs. Western diet at same age.

^fP < 0.05 vs. high-fat diet at same age.

^gP < 0.01 vs. high-fat diet at same age.

^hP < 0.001 vs. high-fat diet at same age.