Ethanol Extract from Ulva prolifera Prevents High-Fat Diet-Induced Insulin Resistance, Oxidative Stress, and Inflammation Response in Mice.

Wei Song,Yan Li,Zongling Wang,Xuelei Zhang

doi:10.1155/2018/1374565

Abstract

Ulva prolifera is the major causative species in the green tide, a serious marine ecological disaster, which bloomed in the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea of China. However, it is also a popular edible seaweed and its extracts exerts anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. The present study investigated the effects of ethanol extract of U. prolifera (EUP) on insulin sensitivity, inflammatory response, and oxidative stress in high-fat-diet- (HFD-) treated mice. HFD-treated mice obtained drinking water containing 2% or 5% EUP. The results showed that EUP supplementation significantly prevented HFD-induced weight gain of liver and fat. EUP supplementation also improved glucose tolerance and insulin resistance in HFD-treated mice. Moreover, EUP supplementation prevented the increased expression of genes involved in triglyceride synthesis and proinflammatory genes and the decreased expression of genes involved in fatty acid oxidation in liver of HFD-treated mice. Furthermore, EUP supplementation decreased reactive oxygen species content, while increasing glutathione content and glutathione peroxidase activity in HFD-treated mice. In conclusion, our results showed that EUP improved insulin resistance and had antilipid accumulation and anti-inflammatory and antioxidative effects on HFD-treated mice. We suggested that U. prolifera extracts may be regarded as potential candidate for the prevention of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Highlights

Ulva prolifera, a green macroalgae species which recurrently bloomed in the Yellow Sea of China, causes the world’s largest green tides from 2008 [1]
These results indicated that U. prolifera might have beneficial effects on metabolic syndromes and we conducted the present study to explore the effects of ethanol extract from U. prolifera on HFDtreated mice
The results showed that ethanol extract from U. prolifera could prevent the occurrence of inflammatory response, oxidative stress, and lipid accumulation in liver

Summary

Introduction

A green macroalgae species which recurrently bloomed in the Yellow Sea of China, causes the world’s largest green tides from 2008 [1]. Since 2015, new green tides events begin to bloom near the Beidaihe Scenic in the Bohai Sea, and U. prolifera is the major causative species. These ecological disasters have caused serious influences in tourism, aquaculture, and marine ecosystems [2, 3]. Increasing attention in recent years has been paid to marine macroalgae to develop new functional food ingredients for the treatment of overnutritioninduced metabolic syndrome. Few studies have investigated their effects on the prevention of metabolic syndrome

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Results

Conclusion