Protective effect of prebiotic and exercise intervention on knee health in a rat model of diet-induced obesity

Rios JL, Bomhof MR, Reimer RA, Hart DA, Collins KH, Herzog W · Scientific Reports

Prebiotic fibre alone, exercise alone, and the two together each **completely prevented** the knee joint damage that the high-fat/high-sucrose diet otherwise produced, with matching changes in body fat, insulin sensitivity, serum endotoxin, cytokines and adipokines, and caecal microbiota. A rare animal experiment in which a dietary and an exercise intervention are tested head to head and in combination.

Population

Male Sprague-Dawley rats on a high-fat/high-sucrose diet, in five groups crossing prebiotic fibre and aerobic exercise

Intervention

Prebiotic fibre supplement, aerobic exercise, or both, on a high-fat/high-sucrose diet

Comparator

Chow-fed controls and unsupplemented high-fat/high-sucrose rats

Limitations

Rats, male only, and a diet-induced metabolic OA model rather than a mechanical or age-related one. 'Completely prevented' is against a model whose damage is driven by the diet the prebiotic offsets.