Insulin resistance and promotion of aberrant crypt foci in the colons of rats on a high-fat diet

McKeown-Eyssen and Giovannucci recently proposed that the etiology of insulin resistance (IR) and colorectal cancer (CRC) are related. They suggested that diets high in fat and energy and low in complex carbohydrates and a sedentary life-style lead to IR and that the associated hyperinsulinemia, hypertriglyceridemia, and glycemia lead to increased CRC risk through the growth-promoting effect of insulin or the increased availability of energy. We reasoned that if diet affects colon carcinogenesis through its effect on IR, evidence of colon cancer promotion would be preceded by evidence of IR. To test this expectation, we compared the effects of a high-fat (HF, 59% energy) diet and a low-fat (LF, 11% energy) diet on indirect measures of IR and promotion in azoxymethane-initiated F344 rats. Promotion was assessed as growth of aberrant crypt foci (ACF) at 100 days after initiation. The HF diet increased ACF size 1.4 times (95% confidence interval = 1.30-1.58) that of the LF diet. The HF diet also led to impaired oral glucose tolerance tests measured at 4, 32, 60, and 88 days and characterized by an average increased glucose concentration of 0.78 +/- 0.17 mmol/l (p < 0.001). It also resulted in an impaired intravenous glucose tolerance test and elevated levels of serum insulin after a glucose gavage. We concluded that with this model a high-fat diet leads to evidence of IR before is is possible to demonstrate CRC promotion, thus providing support, necessary but not sufficient, for the causal hypothesis linking IR and CRC. Possible mechanisms linking diet, IR, and promotion are considered.