Abstract
Schisandrae Fructus (SF), the fruit of Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baillon, has been used for the treatment of liver injury and metabolism-related disorders in China. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of supplementation with ethanol extract of SF seed (EtSF-S) on serum/hepatic lipid and glucose levels as well as fecal total cholesterol (TC) contents in mice fed a normal diet (ND) or high-fat/fructose diet (HFFD) containing 15% lard oil and 15% fructose. Female ICR mice (18–20 g in body weight) were fed with ND or HFFD for 3 months, and then EtSF-S was added to both chow diets at increasing concentrations of 1, 5, and 10% (w/w). Thirty days later, serum and hepatic lipids, including TC, triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and glucose, were measured. Dietary supplementation with EtSF-S reduced hepatic TC (36 and 18%) and TG levels (38 and 28%) and increased serum HDL/LDL ratio (16 and 26%) in both ND- and HFFD-fed mice, respectively. Moreover, supplementation with EtSF-S elevated serum HDL (31%) in HFFD-fed mice and reduced serum LDL (27%) in ND-fed mice. EtSF-S treatment reduced fat mass (40%) in ND-fed mice and increased fecal TC contents (33%) in HFFD-fed mice. EtSF-S supplementation decreased hepatic glucose contents (29%) in both ND- and HFFD-fed mice. However, diet supplemented with EtSF-S elevated serum TG levels (up to 123%) and hepatic size (28%), but more importantly, suppressed the body weight gain (approximately 130%) in mice fed with HFFD. These findings suggested that dietary supplementation with EtSF-S as natural herbal function food may be a useful strategy for the treatment of patients with fatty liver disease or overweight without a high intake of sugar and fat.
Highlights
A high intake of sugar and fat, as in the case of Western diets, is associated with an increased incidence of obesity, hyperlipidemia, coronary heart disease (CHD), diabetes, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) [1, 2], which may result in other related diseases
Second experimental protocol: this study aimed to investigate the effect of EtSF-S or FF supplementation on lipid and glucose metabolism in mice fed with high fructose/fat diet (HFFD). e mice were first fed with either HFFD or normal diet (ND) for 3 months
During the experimental period of supplementation, the mean body weight gain was decreased by 0.91 g in ND-fed mice, but it was increased by 0.77 g in HFFD-fed mice (p < 0.01)
Summary
A high intake of sugar and fat, as in the case of Western diets, is associated with an increased incidence of obesity, hyperlipidemia, coronary heart disease (CHD), diabetes, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) [1, 2], which may result in other related diseases. Erefore, it is of great therapeutic interest and urgency to search for new drugs used for lowering lipid contents in the blood and liver In this connection, over the last few decades, many herbal medicines have attracted much attention and research interest because of their time-tested health benefits and safety [6, 7]. Our previous studies have demonstrated that SF extracts [15, 16] and its related compounds such as schisandrin B (Sch B) [17], bicyclol [18], and bifendate [19] reduced the hepatic lipid contents in normal and hypercholesterolemic mice Both bicyclol and bifendate are synthetic intermediates of dibenzocyclooctene lignan for treating liver injury caused by viruses and chemicals in clinical situations
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