Reducing oil content in fried potato chips is associated with attenuated diet-induced metabolic disturbances: Insights into gut-liver metabolic associations from multi-omics analysis.

Abstract

This study investigated metabolic responses to diets containing fried potato chips with different oil contents using an 8-week feeding model in male C57BL/6 J mice. Reduced-oil (22.30% oil) and high-oil (38.22% oil) potato chips were incorporated into experimental diets at 40% (w/w), resulting in dietary fat contents of 11.92% and 18.29% and calculated energy densities of 4.09 and 4.41 kcal/g, respectively. Compared with the high-oil potato-chip group (HFG), the reduced-oil potato-chip group (LFG) exhibited lower final body weight (53.71 ± 3.89 vs. 63.79 ± 4.88 g, respectively), accompanied by less pronounced dyslipidemia, oxidative alterations, and hepatic lipid accumulation. Serum triglyceride concentrations were lower in the LFG (1.28 ± 0.01 vs. 1.79 ± 0.01 mmol/L, respectively), while biochemical and histological findings indicated comparatively attenuated hepatic metabolic disturbances. Gut microbiota profiling, targeted hepatic bile acid analysis, and untargeted hepatic lipidomics revealed distinct microbial and metabolic profiles between the dietary groups. Exploratory multi-omics integration further identified associations among gut microbial composition, hepatic bile acid profiles, and lipidomic features. However, because food intake was measured at the cage level and the diets differed in energy density and overall nutritional composition, the observed metabolic differences cannot be attributed specifically to oil reduction. The multi-omics associations also do not establish causal mechanisms. Collectively, these findings characterize metabolic responses to nutritionally distinct fried-potato-chip-containing diets and provide preliminary evidence supporting further investigation of reduced-oil food-processing strategies.

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