A polysaccharide from Salvia Miltiorrhizae Radix inhibits weight gain of mice with high-fat diet via modulating intestinal bacteria.

Abstract

Obesity, a global chronic disease, has been recognized as a sever risk of health. In our study, a novel polysaccharide named ARS was isolated and purified from acrial part of Salvia Miltiorrhizae Radix. Our aims to investigate the weight-reducing effect of a polysaccharide from Salvia Miltiorrhizae Radix on mice with high-fat diet. The novel polysaccharide ARS mainly consisted of glucose and galactose with a molar ratio of 0.59: 1.00. We found that the treatment of ARS could inhibit weight gain of mice with high-fat diet via modulating intestinal bacteria. Moreover, we surveyed its mechanism in mice and the gut microbiota sequencing results demonstrated that ARS can reverse or resist high-fat diet induced significant weight gaining or obesity by increasing the diversity of gut microbiota and optimizing the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes. Phylum and species analysis of gut microbiota demonstrated that obesity caused by high fat diet was accompanied by significant changes in the microbial communities, but ARS could reverse the disturbance of gut microbiota induced by high fat diet to keep homeostasis. Overall, our findings suggested the new function of ARS in regulating gut microbiota, which provided a theoretical basis for the development of high-quality ARS functional foods and the application of dietary supplements. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.