Lyophilized Maqui (Aristotelia chilensis) Berry Administration Suppresses High-Fat Diet-Induced Liver Lipogenesis through the Induction of the Nuclear Corepressor SMILE.

Viviana Sandoval,Diego Haro,Hèctor Sanz-Lamora,Pedro F Marrero,Joana Relat

doi:10.3390/antiox10050637

Abstract

The liver is one of the first organs affected by accumulated ectopic lipids. Increased de novo lipogenesis and excessive triglyceride accumulation in the liver are hallmarks of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and are strongly associated with obesity, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes. Maqui dietary supplemented diet-induced obese mice showed better insulin response and decreased weight gain. We previously described that these positive effects of maqui are partially due to an induction of a brown-like phenotype in subcutaneous white adipose tissue that correlated with a differential expression of Chrebp target genes. In this work, we aimed to deepen the molecular mechanisms underlying the impact of maqui on the onset and development of the obese phenotype and insulin resistance focusing on liver metabolism. Our results showed that maqui supplementation decreased hepatic steatosis caused by a high-fat diet. Changes in the metabolic profile include a downregulation of the lipogenic liver X receptor (LXR) target genes and of fatty acid oxidation gene expression together with an increase in the expression of small heterodimer partner interacting leucine zipper protein (Smile), a corepressor of the nuclear receptor family. Our data suggest that maqui supplementation regulates lipid handling in liver to counteract the metabolic impact of a high-fat diet.

Highlights

The regular consumption of anthocyanins and anthocyanidin-rich berries is considered a potential strategy for the treatment/prevention of obesity-related pathologies, among others [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
We showed that maqui supplementation decreased hepatic steatosis and the triglyceride accumulation caused by a high-fat diet (HFD)
Histological analysis of livers using eosin–hematoxylin staining revealed that mice undergoing HFD, as expected, exhibited a large accumulation of lipids in this organ, and large lipid droplets (LDs) were observed, confirming advanced hepatic steatosis (Figure 1a)

Summary

Introduction

The regular consumption of anthocyanins and anthocyanidin-rich berries is considered a potential strategy for the treatment/prevention of obesity-related pathologies, among others [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. The intake of anthocyanins or anthocyanin-rich foods has shown positive effects for bodyweight control both in humans and in rodents. It has proven effective for reducing fat accumulation, improving glucose tolerance, improving insulin sensitivity, and increasing energy expenditure, inter alia [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]. Two of the hallmarks of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are its higher rate of de novo lipogenesis and its excessive accumulation of triglycerides in the liver.

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Conclusion