Abstract
Allicin, naturally present in the bulbs of the lily family, has anticancer, blood pressure lowering, blood fat lowering and diabetes improving effects. Recent studies have shown that allicin promotes the browning of white adipocytes and reduces the weight gain of mice induced by high-fat diet. While the gut microbiota has a strong relationship with obesity and energy metabolism, the effect of allicin on weight loss via gut microorganisms is still unclear. In this study, we treated obese mice induced by high-fat diet with allicin to determine its effects on fat deposition, blood metabolic parameters and intestinal morphology. Furthermore, we used high-throughput sequencing on a MiSeq Illumina platform to determine the gut microorganisms’ species. We found that allicin significantly reduced the weight gain of obese mice by promoting lipolysis and thermogenesis, as well as blood metabolism and intestinal morphology, and suppressing hepatic lipid synthesis and transport. In addition, allicin changed the composition of the intestinal microbiota and increased the proportion of beneficial bacteria. In conclusion, our study showed that allicin improves metabolism in high-fat induced obese mice by modulating the gut microbiota. Our findings provide a theoretical basis for further elucidation of the weight loss mechanism of allicin.
Highlights
The incidence of overweight and obesity is increasing around the world
We found that allicin suppressed body weight gain by regulating the gut microbiota
These results indicated that allicin reduced body weight and fat in mice with highresults indicated that allicin reduced body weight and fat in mice with high-fat diet-induced obesity
Summary
The incidence of overweight and obesity is increasing around the world. Epidemiological studies have identified a high body mass index as a risk factor for a range of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, multiple cancers, and a range of musculoskeletal disorders [1,2]. A growing amount of evidences suggest that the gut microbiota may serve as an important modulator of obesity by affecting the absorption of nutrients in the intestine [3,4]. Recent studies have shown that gut microorganisms function to endocrine organs, because they produce biologically active metabolites that affect the host. Intestinal microorganisms are in a position to produce large amounts of metabolites—some of which are absorbed directly into the systemic circulation and others are processed by the host enzymes [5]. The intestinal microbiota of healthy people is mainly composed of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. It has been found that in obese individuals, the abundance of Bacteroidetes is decreased and the abundance of Firmicutes is Nutrients 2019, 11, 2909; doi:10.3390/nu11122909 www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients
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