Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has beneficial effects on liver lipid accumulation and hepatic inflammatory parameters in obese rats

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 11037 - 9
• Main Authors: Longo, Larisse, de Souza, Valessa Emanoele Gabriel, Stein, Dirson João, de Freitas, Joice Soares, Uribe-Cruz, Carolina, Torres, Iraci L. S., Álvares-da-Silva, Mário Reis
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 26.05.2021; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/61; 692/4020; Animal models; Animals; Diet; Disease Models, Animal; Eating disorders; Electrical stimulation of the brain; ESB; Fatty liver; Fatty Liver - metabolism; Fatty Liver - therapy; Food consumption; Humanities and Social Sciences; IL-1β; Inflammation; Inflammation - metabolism; Inflammation - therapy; Interleukin 10; Lipid Metabolism; Lipids; Liver; Liver - metabolism; Male; multidisciplinary; Obesity; Obesity - metabolism; Obesity - therapy; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Rodents; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Steatosis; Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation - methods; Triglycerides; Tumor necrosis factor-α
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-90563-2

Obesity is key to liver steatosis development and progression. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a promising tool for eating disorders management but was not yet evaluated in steatosis. This study investigated tDCS’ effects on liver steatosis and inflammation in an experimental obesity model. Male Wistar rats (60 days-old) were randomly allocated (n = 10/group) as follows: standard-diet/sham tDCS (SDS), standard-diet/tDCS (SDT), hypercaloric-cafeteria-diet/sham tDCS (HDS), and hypercaloric-cafeteria-diet/tDCS (HDT). After 40 days of diet, animals received active or sham tDCS for eight days and were euthanized for liver fat deposition and inflammation analysis. HDS and HDT animals showed cumulative food consumption, total liver lipid deposits, IL-1β, TNF-α levels, IL-1β/IL-10 and TNF-α/IL-10 ratios significantly higher than the SDS and SDT groups ( p  < 0.001 for all parameters). tDCS (SDT and HDT) reduced liver lipid deposits (0.7 times for both, p  < 0.05), IL-1β (0.7 times and 0.9 times, respectively, p  < 0.05) and IL-1β/IL-10 index (0.6 times and 0.8 times, respectively, p  < 0.05) in relation to sham (SDS and HDS). There was an interaction effect on the accumulation of hepatic triglycerides ( p  < 0.05). tDCS reduced 0.8 times the average liver triglyceride concentration in the HDT vs. HDS group ( p  < 0.05). In this obesity model, tDCS significantly decreased liver steatosis and hepatic inflammation. These results may justify looking into tDCS utility for human steatosis.