Effect of long‐term administration of heat‐processed onion (Allium cepa L.) extract on body weight, visceral fat accumulation, and plasma lipid profile in C57BL/6 mice fed high‐fat diets

Abstract

In the previous study, it was found that Amadori rearrangement compounds‐rich heat‐processed onion reduced postprandial blood glucose increase by reducing absorption of glucose through inhibition of sucrase and α‐glucosidase in the small intestinal tract. This reduced absorption of carbohydrate might control body weight gain due to excessive carbohydrates consumption and induce calorie restriction. To investigate and prove the mechanism for the effects of heat‐processed onion extract (ONI_V) on body weight gain, body weight, plasma lipids, body fat mass, and lipid deposition were evaluated and compared to Garcinia cambogia (GC), a known competitive inhibitor of adenosine 5′‐triphosphate (ATP) citrate lyase in C57BL/6 mice model. Male C57BL/6 mice were fed high‐fat diet (60% kcal fat) with 2% ONI_V or GC used as a positive control. Supplementation of ONI_V effectively lowered the body weight gain, visceral fat accumulation, and plasma lipid concentrations. Compared to control, ONI_V increased the number of adipocytes with a smaller diameter. Interestingly, GC treatment did not change either adipocyte numbers or sizes although total weight of visceral fat pads was significantly reduced compared to control. These results indicate that ONI_V and GC may use different mechanisms in inhibiting weight gain under the current experimental conditions used in this study. Furthermore, ONI_V may reduce weight gain using a similar mechanism of anti‐diabetic drugs, thiazolidinediones (TZDs). TZDs in humans and animals have been shown to be a strong ligand for PPARγ, a nuclear transcription factor that enhances adipocyte differentiation, thereby increasing the number of adipocytes with smaller diameters, which is consistent with the effects of ONI_V observed in this study. According to the obtained results, ONI‐V may be effective not only in reducing weight gains, but also in ameliorating some of the metabolic abnormalities including hyperglycemia, oxidative stress, and inflammation associated with weight gain and obesity.Support or Funding InformationThis research was financially supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE), Korea, under the “Regional Specialized Industry Development Program” supervised by the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT).This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.