Adverse effects of a high-glucose diet on body weight and plasma calcium and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 levels in calcium-deficient growing rats.

We tested the hypothesis that dietary calcium would lead to greater impairment of body weight gain and calcium homeostasis if rats are fed a diet with a high glucose content compared with our standard diet in which the carbohydrate is supplied by whole wheat flour. Groups of female rats at 21 days of age were given either of two equivalent calcium-deficient diets with carbohydrate supplied either by glucose (LCaG) or by wheat flour (LCaW). Control rats were fed the wheat-flour diet containing 0.4% calcium. Since previous studies indicated divergent effects of glucose-based and flour-based diets on body weight in vitamin D-deficient rats, we designed a parallel study with vitamin D-deprived rats. Compared with rats fed the LCaW diet, the rats fed the LCaG diet had inferior body weight gain and more severe hypocalcemia (1-2 mg/ml lower) over a 40-day period, and no significant elevation of the plasma 1,25(OH)2D3 level at 61 days of age. Rats fed the LCaW diet maintained a 3-fold elevation of plasma 1,25(OH)2D3 relative to the level of control rats fed the 0.4% calcium diet. The dry weight and percent ash of tibias were similarly reduced in the two calcium-restricted groups compared to the control group. Among the vitamin D-deprived rats, those fed the glucose diet had poorer weight gain than those fed the wheat flour diet. However, both groups had similarly depressed serum calcium level, tibia ash content and 1,25(OH)2D3 level. Thus, a glucose diet combined with calcium restriction or vitamin D deprivation appears to accentuate the impairment of body weight gain and, when combined with calcium restriction, it also accentuates the impairment of calcium homeostasis and interferes with the adaptive increase in plasma 1,25(OH)2D3.