Abstract
Obesity is a worldwide epidemic with severe metabolic consequences. Polyphenols are secondary metabolites in plants and the most abundant dietary antioxidants, which possess a wide range of health effects. The most relevant food sources are fruit and vegetables, red wine, black and green tea, coffee, virgin olive oil, and chocolate, as well as nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices. The aim of this work was to evaluate the ability of a pure, isolated polyphenol supplementation to counteract the pernicious metabolic effects of a high-fat diet (HFD). Our results indicated that the administration of pure, isolated polyphenols under HFD conditions for 26 weeks worsened the glucose metabolism in diet-induced obese mice. The data showed that the main target organ for these undesirable effects were the kidneys, where we observed fibrotic, oxidative, and kidney-disease markers. This work led us to conclude that the administration of pure polyphenols as a food supplement would not be advisable. Instead, the ingestion of complete “whole” foods would be the best way to get the health effects of bioactive compounds such as polyphenols.
Highlights
Obesity is a worldwide epidemic with severe metabolic consequences
Obesity and its metabolic-related disorders are caused by various complex issues, one of which is an impairment of the adipose tissue functionality and expansion that result in an accumulation of lipids in organs such as liver, heart, pancreas, kidney, out of the white adipose tissue (WAT) [1,2] and an increase in circulating prooxidative, inflammatory adipokines [3,4]
C57BL/6J littermate male mice were randomly divided into three groups: mice fed with a standard chow diet (Chow; Envigo 2918) (n = 8); mice fed with a 45% fat-derived-calories diet (HFD, D12451, Research Diets) (n = 11); and mice fed with a high-fat diet supplemented with pure, isolated polyphenols (HFD + Pol) (n = 10) (D12451, Research Diets D18060501)
Summary
Obesity and its metabolic-related disorders are caused by various complex issues, one of which is an impairment of the adipose tissue functionality and expansion that result in an accumulation of lipids in organs such as liver, heart, pancreas, kidney, out of the white adipose tissue (WAT) [1,2] and an increase in circulating prooxidative, inflammatory adipokines [3,4]. The properties of bioactive compounds and the identification of new therapeutic targets have indicated their potential for the prevention and treatment of metabolic diseases such as obesity and its comorbidities [5]. Polyphenols are secondary metabolites in plants and the most abundant dietary antioxidants, which possess a wide range of health effects [5]. It has been suggested that the antioxidant capacity of polyphenols may protect against the reactive-oxygen-species (ROS)related diseases such as insulin resistance, mitochondrial dysfunction, type 2 diabetes, Antioxidants 2022, 11, 120.
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