Dietary supplementation with short-chain fructo-oligosaccharides improves insulin sensitivity in obese horses.

This research explores the effects of dietary supplementation with short-chain fructo-oligosaccharides (scFOS) on insulin sensitivity in obese horses, discovering that scFOS can moderately improve insulin sensitivity without affecting body weight (BW) and body condition score (BCS).

Study Design and Methods

• The study involved eight mature Arabian geldings (horses) with an average Body Condition Score of 8, implying they were obese.
• This was a crossover study, meaning each horse would receive both the treatment (scFOS) and the control (maltodextrin) at different periods, separated by a 3-week ‘washout’ period to avoid carryover effects from the previous treatment.
• Dietary supplementation for each group of four horses was 45 grams daily per horse of either scFOS or maltodextrin, supplied for 6 weeks.

Measurement Parameters

• Blood tests were conducted to measure resting plasma concentrations of glucose, insulin, triglycerides, and leptin.
• The research team used a minimal model analysis of a frequently sampled intravenous glucose tolerance test to evaluate insulin sensitivity, glucose effectiveness, acute insulin response to glucose, and disposition index.

Key Findings

• Dietary supplementation with scFOS improved insulin sensitivity and lowered the acute insulin response to glucose compared to maltodextrin, without affecting body weight (BW) and body condition score (BCS).
• The resting serum insulin concentration was also reduced following scFOS supplementation, which was not observed in the maltodextrin group.
• However, scFOS supplementation did not significantly alter glucose effectiveness, leptin, and triglyceride levels, nor the disposition index.
• The study found no significant effects of scFOS supplementation on plasma glucose concentration or serum triglyceride and leptin concentrations.

Conclusion and Relevance

• This study indicated that short-chain fructo-oligosaccharides (scFOS) can improve insulin sensitivity in obese horses, which could have implications for obese, insulin-resistant horses at a higher risk for laminitis, a painful inflammatory condition of the tissues (laminae) that bond the hoof wall to the pedal (coffin) bone in the horse’s hoof.