Gender-Dependent Effects of Dietary-Induced Changes of the Muscle in an Animal Model for Sarcopenic Obesity

Claudia Fellner¹, Christine Hechtl¹, Roland Bttner², Okka H. Hamer¹, Christian Stroszczynski¹, Cornelius Bollheimer²

To assess dietary-induced changes of the muscle, 20 female high fat fed rats (HFR) and 12 female control animals (CR) fed with standard diet as well as 8 male HFR and 14 male CR underwent MRI and MRS at the age of 16 months. Maximum cross sectional area of the M. quadriceps was smaller in HFR compared with CR, HFR yielded increased lipid content and prolonged T2 relaxation times. Although all effects were seen in both genders, dietary-induced differences were significantly more pronounced in male than in female rats indicating relevant gender-depenent differences in our animal model of sarcopenic obesity.