Anti‐obesity effects of bamboo leaf extracts studied by microarray analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand the molecular basis of the anti-obesity effects of bamboo leaf (Sasa borealis) extracts reported in our previous data. C56Bl/6J mice, fed high fat diets with water or ethanol extracts from the bamboo leaves showed significant loss of their weight and body fat mass compared to control mice. In this study, we conducted oligonucleotide microarray (MOC 38.5K) analysis in adipose tissue taken from the previous study and then classified genes into functional Gene Ontology categories. In particular, we focused here on the genes related to obesity and lipid metabolism and confirmed the results by measuring the serum levels of a selected number of proteins that were differentially expressed. 127 genes were up regulated and 451 genes were down regulated by taking BLW and those genes could be categorized in 49 pathways. By taking BLW, 172 genes were up regulated and 222 genes were down regulated and then those genes could be categorized in 31 pathways. Among the genes changed, one of ob gene expression was confirmed by decrease of serum leptin levels. These results indicate that the bamboo leaf extracts may change several gene expressions including the genes of obesity and lipid metabolism.