Mango Supplementation Averts Hepatic and Cardiac Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Mice Fed a High‐Fat Diet

Abstract

Obesity and its co‐morbidities have been associated with mitochondrial oxidative stress leading to impaired substrate oxidation. This study aimed at investigating the potential ameliorating effects of freeze‐dried mango pulp supplementation on body composition and mitochondrial oxidative capacity in the liver and heart of mice fed a high fat‐diet. Six‐week old male C57BL/6 mice were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 dietary treatment groups: control, high fat (HF=60% fat) and HF + 10% mango (w/w) for 12 weeks. Mango had a modest effect in preventing the increase in body weight and changes in body composition due to HF feeding. HF diet reduced basal oxygen consumption rate (OCR) in the heart (P = 0.01), but not in the liver. Upon stimulation with ADP, an important substrate for the proton gradient coupling with oxidative phosphorylation, hepatic mitochondrial OCR in the control and mango group was significantly increased in contrast to the HF group. Maximal respiratory capacity (MRC) in the liver, as determined by stimulation with the uncoupling agent FCCP, resulted in a significant decrease in MRC in the HF group compared to the control and mango groups. Mango supplementation tended to prevent the reduction in both hepatic and cardiac mitochondrial OCR in response to an antimycin challenge, a complex III inhibitor, in contrast to the HF group. Our findings demonstrated that mango supplementation is beneficial in preventing high‐fat diet‐induced damage at the cellular level by preserving mitochondrial oxidative capacity.