Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has benefcial efects on liver lipid accumulation and hepatic infammatory parameters in obese rats

Abstract

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’ efects on liver steatosis and infammation in an experimental obesity model. Male Wistar rats (60 days-old) were randomly allocated (n= 10/group) as follows: standarddiet/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 infammation 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 signifcantly 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 efect 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 signifcantly decreased liver steatosis and hepatic infammation. These results may justify looking into tDCS utility for human steatosis.