Effect of Agar‐free Gelidium Amansii on Obesity in DIO C57BL/6J Mice Model

Abstract

Gelidium amansii (GA) which is an edible red alga has been previously found in our study to protect against obesity in vitro. These two studies were carried out to further report the beneficial effects of GA on obesity and determine the optimal dose of GA to either prevent or treat obesity in vivo. Twenty-five C57BL/6J mice were assigned into five groups for each study, on 60% high fat diet (HFD) with oral treatment of GA ethanol extract (0, 250, 300, 500, 1000 mg/kg) for nine weeks. For treatment model, diet-induced obesity (DIO) induction period was for five weeks. In the prevention study, the amount of quadriceps femoris increased significantly in all treatment groups. Although GA did not show any significant effects through adipogenesis (PPARγ, SREBP1 and ACC) and lipolysis (adiponectin and HSL) biomarkers, it proved to have a significant anti-inflammatory effect through IL-10 in dose-dependent manner. For the treatment study, the amount of mesenteric fat and plasma glucose significantly decreased in GA300 group. There was also a tendency to reduce the amount of ACC and SREBP1 by GA treatment. In addition, GA successfully demonstrated anti-inflammatory effect as shown in the prevention study. These results indicated that GA had effects on treatment of obesity rather than prevention in DIO mice model with the optimal dose of 300 mg/kg, working through the anti-inflammatory pathway in both models. This work is supported by Technology Commercialization Support Program, Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Korea (811003031SU000) and Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Korea (2013300911).