• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.172-178
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• 2016

Using high-fat diet-induced obese (DIO) mice, the mechanism of anti-adiposity and anti-obesity actions produced by Inonotus obliquus water extract (IOE) was investigated. Significant reduction in body weight in DIO mice orally administrated with IOE for 8 weeks compared to IOE-non-treated control mice was observed, which was attributed to the reduction of epididymal and mesenteric adipose tissue, but not the liver and skeletal muscle. Adiponectin synthesis in epididymal adipose tissue (EAT) and AMPK phosphorylation in the liver were significantly increased in IOE-treated DIO mice. Gene expression analysis showed that IOE-treated DIO mice had higher expression levels of lipogenic genes in EAT and fatty-acid oxidative genes in the liver, but lower expression levels of hepatic pro-inflammatory cytokines compared to IOE-non-treated controls. Our findings confirm a therapeutic potential of Inonotus obliquus for reducing adiposity and ameliorating hyperlipidemia to treat metabolic disorders.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.311-318
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• 2018

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) supplementation has been suggested to negatively correlate with obesity in humans and other animals. Previous studies, including ours, have demonstrated that a high-fat diet (HFD) induces obesity and related diseases such as hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Here, we investigated the effects of vitamin C on visceral adipocyte hypertrophy and glucose intolerance in C57BL/6J mice. Mice received a low-fat diet (LFD, 10% kcal fat), HFD (45% kcal fat), or the same HFD supplemented with vitamin C (HFD-VC, 1% w/w) for 15 weeks. Visceral adiposity and glucose intolerance were examined using metabolic measurements, histology, and gene expression analyses. Mice in the HFD-VC supplementation group had reduced body weight, mesenteric fat mass, and mesenteric adipocyte size compared with HFD-fed mice. Vitamin C intake in obese mice also decreased the mRNA levels of lipogenesis-related genes (i.e., stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 and sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1c) in mesenteric adipose tissues, inhibited hyperglycemia, and improved glucose tolerance. In addition, vitamin C attenuated the HFD-induced increase in the size of pancreatic islets. These results suggest that vitamin C suppresses HFD-induced visceral adipocyte hypertrophy and glucose intolerance in part by decreasing the visceral adipose expression of genes involved in lipogenesis.

• Journal of Korean Medicine for Obesity Research
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.75-92
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• 2015

Objectives: This study was designed to investigate the effect of Gami-cheongpyesagan-tang extract (GCST) on high fat diet-induced obesity in rats. Methods: The mice were divided into six groups; normal diet control, high fat diet control (HFD), HFD+GCST administrated group (100, 200, and 400 mg/kg) and olistat-admistrated group. Obesity was induced by high fat diet (45%) for 7 weeks in mice, and GCST was administrated orally every day for 7 weeks. The body weight, food intake, and serological markers such as total cholesterol, triglyceride, lipid contents, leptin, adiponectin and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase/glutamic pyruvic transaminase were measured in mice. The mRNA expression of obese-associating genes such as sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP)-1c, fatty acid synthase (FAS), stearoyl-CaP desaturase (SCD-1), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor $(PPAR)-{\alpha}$, COA oxidase (ACO), and carnitine palmitoyltransferase ($CPT-1{\alpha}$) was analyzed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Results: The administration of GCST at 400 mg/kg, significantly reduced the increase of body weight and food intake as well as food efficiency compared to HFD group. GCST decreased the serum levels of triglyceride, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, leptin in HFD control group and inhibited lipid accumulation in liver and adipose tissues, but did not increase high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol. In the liver tissues of GCST administrated HFD group, the mRNA levels of SREBP-1c, FAS and SCD-1 were decreased and the mRNA levels of $PPAR-{\alpha}$, ACO, and $CPT-1{\alpha}$ were increased. Conclusions: These results indicate that GCST could improve high fat diet induced obesity through inhibiting the hyperlipidemia in fatty Liver. It suggest that GCST may be used clinically for declining the accumultion of body fat with hyperlipidemia.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.42-48
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• 2016

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Seaweeds have been reported to have various health beneficial effects. In this study, we investigated the potential anti-obesity and anti-inflammatory effects of four types of domestic brown seaweeds in a high-fat diet-induced obese mouse model and bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDM). MATERIALS/METHODS: Male C57BL/6N mice were fed low-fat diet (LFD), high-fat diet (HFD) or HFD containing Undaria Pinnatifida, HFD containing Laminaria Japonica (LJ), HFD containing Sargassum Fulvellum, or HFD containing Hizikia Fusiforme (HF) for 16 weeks. RESULTS: Brown seaweed supplementation did not affect long-term HFD-associated changes in body weight or adiposity, although mice fed HFD + LJ or HFD + HF gained slightly less body weight compared with those fed HFD at the beginning of feeding. Despite being obese, mice fed HFD + LJ appeared to show improved insulin sensitivity compared to mice fed HFD. Consistently, we observed significantly reduced blood glucose concentrations in mice fed HFD + LJ compared with those of mice fed HFD. Although no significant differences in adipocyte size were detected among the HFD-fed groups, consumption of seaweeds decreased formation of HFD-induced crown-like structures in gonadal adipose tissue as well as plasma inflammatory cytokines. BMDM from mice fed HFDs with seaweeds showed differential regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-$1{\beta}$ and IL-6 compared with BMDM from mice fed HFD by LPS stimulation. CONCLUSION: Although seaweed consumption did not prevent long-term HFD-induced obesity in C57BL/6N mice, it reduced insulin resistance (IR) and circulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Therefore, seaweeds may ameliorate systemic inflammation and IR in obesity partially due to inhibition of inflammatory signaling in adipose tissue cells as well as bone marrow-derived immune cells.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.339-348
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• 2006

Misaengtang (MST), a formula of Korean herbal medicines, has been used as a weight-controlling recipe. We have investigated two experiment of body weight regulation by MST In rats. i) The anti-obesity effect of MTS on a high fat diet-induced obesity, male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed with a high-fat diet containing 30% in the absence or presence of MST (0.3, 1 or 3%) or a reference orlistat (0.05%) for 6 weeks. ii) weight-decrease effect of MST on normal diet, same animal were fed with a normal diet in the absence or presence of MST (3%) for 6 weeks. And the body weights, daily feed and water consumptions, organ weights, fat weights serum biochemistry were measured. In both experiments, MST and orlistat did not affect the body weight gain. But orlistat significantly increased the feed and water consumptions, leading to low-feed efficiency, and orlistat markedly reduced abdominal, paratesticular and perirenal fat weights, although increased the kidney weights. In MST, low dose (0.3%) of MST decreased the perirenal fat and increased the kidney weights in rats fed HFD, and MST 3% decreased the abdominal fat weights in rats fed normal diet. In addition, Orlistat caused changes in parameters of hepatotoxicity (AST and glucose), nephrotoxicity (BUN and B/C ratio) and lipid metabolism (HDL and triglycerides). In comparison, MST decreased AST, ALP and ALT, the hepatotoxicity markers, and somewhat improved the hepatic fatty degeneration. Taken together, it is suggested that MST does not exert anti-obesity activity as well as remarkably direct effects, but MST may be potentially benefit for dietary cure and exercise-cure of obesity.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.342-354
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• 2021

Purpose: Obesity is a serious public health issue for the modern society and is considered a chronic health hazard. There are many surgical and pharmacological approaches to treat obesity. However, various potentially hazardous side effects remain the biggest challenge. Therefore, diets based on foods derived from natural products have gained increasing attention compared to anti-obesity drugs. Recently, research on edible insects as a food source has been a topic of considerable interest in the scientific communities. This study examined the anti-obesity effects of ingesting an edible insect by feeding a high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mouse models with a diet containing Tenebrio molitor larvae powder (TMLP). Methods: Six-week-old female C57BL/6J mice were divided into 4 groups according to treatment: 100% normal diet (ND), 100% HFD (HFD), HFD 99% + TMLP 1% (TMLP), and HFD 97% + TMLP 3% (TMLP 3%). TMLP was added to the HFD for 6 weeks for the latter two groups. Results: Compared to the HFD group, mice in the TMLP group showed weight loss, and micro-computed tomographic imaging revealed that the volume of the adipose tissue in the abdominal area also showed significant reduction. After an autopsy, the fat weight was found to be significantly reduced in the TMLP group compared to the HFD group. In addition, the degree of fat cell deposition in the liver tissue and the size of the adipocytes significantly decreased in the TMLP group. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis for the mRNA expression of adipogenesis-related genes namely CCAAT-enhancer-binding proteins (C/EBP-β, C/EBP-δ), and fatty acid-binding protein 4 (FABP4) showed that the expression levels of these genes were significantly reduced in the TMLP group compared to the HFD group. Serum leptin level also decreased significantly in the TMLP group in the comparison with the HFD group. In addition, total cholesterol, triglyceride, and glucose levels in mouse serum also decreased in the TMLP group. Conclusion: Taken together, our results showed that TMLP effectively inhibited adipocyte growth and reduced body weight in obese mice.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.279-293
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• 2021

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The steamed ginger has been shown to have antioxidative effects and a protective effect against obesity. In the present study, we investigated the effects of ethanolic extract of steamed ginger (SGE) on adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes and diet-induced obesity (DIO) mouse model. MATERIALS/METHODS: The protective effects of SGE on adipogenesis were examined in 3T3-L1 adipocytes by measuring lipid accumulations and genes involved in adipogenesis. Male C57BL/6J mice were fed a normal diet (ND, 10% fat w/w), a high-fat diet (HFD, 60% fat w/w), and HFD supplemented with either 40 mg/kg or 80 mg/kg of SGE for 12 weeks. Serum chemistry was measured, and the expression of genes involved in lipid metabolism was determined in the adipose tissue. Histological analysis and micro-computed tomography were performed to identify lipid accumulations in epididymal fat pads. RESULTS: In 3T3-L1 cells, SGE significantly decreased lipid accumulation, with concomitant decreases in the expression of adipogenesis-related genes. SGE significantly attenuated the increase in body, liver, and epididymal adipose tissue weights by HFD. Serum total cholesterol and triglyceride levels were significantly lower in SGE fed groups compared to HFD. In adipose tissue, SGE significantly decreased adipocyte size than that of HFD and altered adipogenesis-related genes. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, steamed ginger exerted anti-obesity effects by regulating genes involved in adipogenesis and lipogenesis in 3T3-L1 cell and epididymal adipose tissue of DIO mice.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2015

Objectives This experimental study was designed to investigate the effects of Dai-saiko-to (DSH) on differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes and body weight, serum lipid levels in high-fat diet-induced obese mice. Materials and Methods Cells were incubated with DSH at an indicated concentration (0.01-1 mg/ml) for 24h, then the growth rate was assessed by MTS assay. 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were incubated in DMEM for 2 days with the indicated concentrations of DSH. On Day 6, the cells were fixed and the cellular lipid contents were assessed by Oil-Red-O staining. The expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor ${\gamma}$ ($PPAR{\gamma}$) and cytidine-cytidine-adenosine-adenosine-thymine (CCAAT)/enhancer-binding proteins ${\alpha}$ ($C/EBP{\alpha}$) as adipocyte-specific proteins were determined by real time RT-PCR and western blotting. Four-weeks old mice (wild-type C57BL/6) were used for all experiments. Body weight gain and serum lipid levels were measured in the obesity-induced mice. Results DSH did not show toxicity even at the concentration of 1 mg/ml and DSH significantly inhibited the differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes in a dose-dependent manner. Also, DSH significantly reduced the expressions of $PPAR{\gamma}$ and $C/EBP{\alpha}$ in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, DSH significantly reduced body weight gain, serum glucose, total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol contents in obesity-induced mice. Conclusions These results demonstrated that DSH inhibited 3T3-L1 preadipocyte differentiations and high-fat diet-induced obesity in mice.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.255-262
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• 2020

Obesity is a critical health issue in Korea, where half of all adults are overweight and a third obese. Aronia melanocarpa -rich in flavonoids and phenolics- with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, could have anti-obesity activity and reduce body fat mass by upregulating lipolysis and β-oxidation in obese mice. Male C57BL/6J mice (n=12) were assigned into four groups: normal chow (18% kcal from fat); high-fat diet control (HFD, 45% kcal from fat); HFD+A. melanocarpa (200 mg/kg diet); HFD+Xenical (500 mg/kg diet, positive control). Antioxidant capacity of A. melanocarpa was established in vitro and in vivo. Weight loss was induced as decreased adiposity and lowered respiratory quotient at rest suggested oxidation of stored fat. Adiposity reduction, accompanied with elevated fat utilization, was owing to enhanced activity of hormone-sensitive lipase. Thus, A. melanocarpa lowered adiposity by enhancing lipolysis and utilization of fatty acids in visceral fat.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.44-50
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• 2010

Tae-Um-Jo-wee-Tang (TUJWT) and Do-Dam-Tang (DDT) have been used as an anti-obesity herbal medicine but their effect and mechanism of action have not been studied. We investigated the effects of TUJWT and DDT on energy and glucose homeostasis using Sprague Dawley female rats with diet-induced obesity. The mechanisms of action of TUJWT and DDT were studied whether they had anti-obesity effects. Rats fed a high-fat diet were divided into 3 groups: rats in each group received 2 g water extracts of modified TUJWT and DDT, or 2 g cellulose per kg body weight (a negative control) on a daily basis. A further group was fed a low-fat diet as a positive control. We found that DDT significantly decreased body weight and body fat (mesenteric fat and retroperitoneal fat) more than the control. This decrease was due to the reduction in energy intake but no changes of energy expenditure. However, DDT increased fat oxidation as a major energy source than the control. In addition, modified TUJWT and DDT improved glucose tolerance without changing serum insulin levels during an oral glucose tolerance test. In conclusion, DDT have a better anti-obesity effect than TUJWT by decreasing energy intake in female rats with diet-induced obesity. It also improves glucose tolerance.