Abstract
As a chronic metabolic disease caused by disorders of purine metabolism, gout has shown increasing incidence rate worldwide. Considering that gout is not easily treated and cured, further studies are explored to prevent gout development through diet modification. Both β-carotin and green tea powder are rich in dietary fiber, which helps maintain the balance of gut microbiota in humans. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of β-carotin and green tea powder diet on the prevention of gouty arthritis in relation to the bacterial structure of gut microbiota in mice. We successfully induced gouty arthritis in C57BL/6 mice by injecting monosodium urate (MSU) crystals and feeding high-fat diet (HFD), and further investigated the effects of additional β-carotin and green tea powder in the diets of mice on the prevention of gouty arthritis in mice. Our results showed that diet of β-carotin and green tea powder reduced the joint swelling and pain in mice with gout, reduced the levels of serum uric acid (UA) and three types of pro-inflammatory cytokines, i.e., interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), improved the gut microbiota profile, and reduced the metabolic levels of purines and pyrimidines. In conclusion, our study provided evidence to support the application of β-carotin and green tea powder diet as a dietary adjustment method to prevent and treat gouty arthritis.
Highlights
Gout is a chronic metabolic disease caused by disorders of purine metabolism (Kuo et al, 2015), characterized by elevated levels of uric acid (UA) in the blood to gradually form monosodium urate (MSU) crystals in the joints and soft tissues surrounding the joints, further inducing an acute inflammatory response with symptoms, such as fever, swelling, and burningPrevention of Gout and severe pains (Rees et al, 2014; So and Martinon, 2017)
Our results showed that diets of β-carotin and green tea powder alleviated the symptoms of gouty arthritis in mice, reduced the levels of serum uric acid and three type of pro-inflammatory cytokines, i.e., interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), improved the gut microbiota profile, and reduced the metabolic levels of purines and pyrimidines
The results showed that compared with the control group (CTL) group, the levels of ribosomal synthesis, pyrimidine metabolism, purine metabolism, and aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthetic metabolic pathways of the gut microbiota in the mice of the model group were increased (Figure 7A), while feeding mice with β-carotin and green tea powder significantly reduced the activities of these metabolic pathways (Figure 7B)
Summary
Gout is a chronic metabolic disease caused by disorders of purine metabolism (Kuo et al, 2015), characterized by elevated levels of uric acid (UA) in the blood to gradually form monosodium urate (MSU) crystals in the joints and soft tissues surrounding the joints, further inducing an acute inflammatory response with symptoms, such as fever, swelling, and burningPrevention of Gout and severe pains (Rees et al, 2014; So and Martinon, 2017). There are ~1.4 women and 4.0 men with gout per 1,000 people (Roddy and Doherty, 2010; Abhishek et al, 2017). Risk factors that have been identified for the development of gout include poor diet, hyperuricemia, and other metabolic syndromes (Roddy and Doherty, 2010). Both allopurinol and febuxostat are effective in the treatment of gout as the first-line agents to lower the level of uric acid (Abhishek et al, 2017). Prevention of gouty arthritis is extremely important and novel therapeutic treatments are needed to prevent the development of gouty arthritis
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