Donkey milk (DM), owing to its composition, represents a good substitute for human milk and its intake has been shown to have beneficial effects for the treatment of multiple alimentary intolerances. The present study was aimed at comparing the effects produced by DM intake on energy balance, lipid metabolism and anti-inflammatory and antioxidant defences in rodents.

Two groups of Wistar rats were allowed to drink DM or cow milk (CM) (24 or 47 mL/day, respectively) for 4 weeks, while a third group which received water was used as control. At the end of this period, energetic (energy expenditure and efficiency), metabolic (serum triglycerides and cholesterol levels, hepatic mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation and efficiency) and inflammatory parameters (CD68 and gal3 immune-reactive cells, LPS and TNFa levels in liver) were measured. Moreover, glutathione concentration (GSH), uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) levels, and aconitase, glutathione-S transferase (GST) and NAD(P)H quinone oxidoreductase (NQO1) activities were measured to evaluate the antioxidant and chemo-protective effects resulting from DM intake.

DM reduces the body weight gain by increasing energy expenditure and decreasing energy efficiency and also produced a significant decrease of serum LPS, triglycerides and TNFa levels as compared to CM-treated or control animals. Of note, the low TNFa amount and the decreased number of gal3 and CD68 positive cells found along with high content of all the considered markers (GSH, UCP2, GST and NQO1) clearly demonstrated the beneficial effects produced by DM intake on anti-inflammatory and antioxidant status in rodents.