Sex- and age-dependent outcomes of 9-hour time-restricted feeding of a Western high-fat high-sucrose diet in C57BL/6J mice.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Bench or animal research (preclinical mouse model)
PubMed 34407415 · doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109543
What was done
Young (3-month-old) and middle-aged (12-month-old) male and female C57BL/6J mice were fed an obesogenic Western high-fat high-sucrose diet either ad libitum or under a 9-hour daily time-restricted feeding schedule without changing dietary quality or quantity. Outcomes evaluated included fatty liver, glucose tolerance, body weight, physical performance, and survival following sepsis.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical values. Time-restricted feeding benefits were largely age-independent but sex-dependent. The intervention protected both sexes against fatty liver and glucose intolerance, improved performance, and increased survival following sepsis, but body weight benefits were observed only in male mice.
Why it matters
This study shows that biological sex can modify specific metabolic outcomes of time-restricted feeding, such as body weight regulation, even when liver and glycemic protections are shared across sexes.
Limits
The study was conducted entirely in mice, meaning findings cannot be directly generalized to humans. The abstract does not report sample sizes, intervention duration, numerical effect sizes, or variance measures.
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