Abstract
Obesity is considered to be a low-grade chronic inflammatory process, which is associated with cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. An integral evaluation of the effects of ferulic acid on biomarkers of glucose dysregulation, dyslipidemia, inflammation, and antioxidant potential induced by a high-fat diet (HFD) in rats was carried out. Three groups of male Wistar rats (six per group) consumed a basal diet (BD), which was supplemented with either lard at 310 g/kg (HFD) or lard and ferulic acid at 2 g/kg (HFD + FA), ad libitum for eight weeks. Body weight gain, hyperplasia, and hypertrophy in abdominal fat tissues were higher in the HFD group than in the HFD+FA group. The rats fed a HFD + FA significantly inhibited the increase in plasma lipids and glucose, compared with the HFD group. Biomarkers associated with inflammation were found at higher concentrations in the serum of rats fed a HFD than the HFD + FA group. Plasma antioxidant levels were lower in HFD rats compared to rats fed the HFD + FA. These results suggest that ferulic acid improves the obesogenic status induced by HFD, and we elucidated the integral effects of ferulic acid on a biological system.
Highlights
The World Health Organization defines overweight and obesity as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health [1]
Ferulic acid inhibited the expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and IL-1β in lipopolysaccharide LPS-activated monocyte-derived THP-1 macrophages by inhibiting the activation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), which could contribute to preventing chronic inflammatory diseases [7]
The above results are consistent with Senaphan et al [9], who showed that ferulic acid alleviates changes in metabolic syndrome in rats through suppression of oxidative stress by down-regulation of p47phox, increased nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability with upregulation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase and suppression of TNF-α [9]
Summary
The World Health Organization defines overweight and obesity as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health [1]. In overweight and obese individuals, the increase in body weight promotes adipose tissue hyperplasia and hypertrophy, which increases secretion of various pro-inflammatory chemokines, cytokines, and hormones, such as C-reactive protein (CRP), resistin, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP)-1, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, and IL-8. This results in a state of low-grade chronic inflammation associated with obesity-related metabolic diseases [2,3].
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