Consumption of a high energy density diet triggers microbiota dysbiosis, hepatic lipidosis, and microglia activation in the nucleus of the solitary tract in rats.

These data suggest that microbiota dysbiosis is the first response of the organism to HED diets, followed by increased liver fat accumulation, microglia activation in the brain, and circulating levels of inflammatory markers. To our knowledge, this is the first study to present longitudinal and cross-sectional results on effect of long-term consumption of HED diets on all these parameters in a single cohort of animals.