Abstract
The crustacean shells-derived polysaccharide chitosan has received much attention for its anti-obesity potential. Dietary supplementation of chitosan has been linked with reductions in feed intake, suggesting a potential link between chitosan and appetite control. Hence the objective of this experiment was to investigate the appetite suppressing potential of prawn shell derived chitosan in a pig model. Pigs (70 ± 0.90 kg, 125 days of age, SD 2.0) were fed either T1) basal diet or T2) basal diet plus 1000 ppm chitosan (n = 20 gilts per group) for 63 days. The parameter categories which were assessed included performance, feeding behaviour, serum leptin concentrations and expression of genes influencing feeding behaviour in the small intestine, hypothalamus and adipose tissue. Pigs offered chitosan visited the feeder less times per day (P<0.001), had lower intake per visit (P<0.001), spent less time eating per day (P<0.001), had a lower eating rate (P<0.01) and had reduced feed intake and final body weight (P< 0.001) compared to animals offered the basal diet. There was a treatment (P<0.05) and time effect (P<0.05) on serum leptin concentrations in animals offered the chitosan diet compared to animals offered the basal diet. Pigs receiving dietary chitosan had an up-regulation in gene expression of growth hormone receptor (P<0.05), Peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma (P<0.01), neuromedin B (P<0.05), neuropeptide Y receptor 5 (P<0.05) in hypothalamic nuclei and neuropeptide Y (P<0.05) in the jejunum. Animals consuming chitosan had increased leptin expression in adipose tissue compared to pigs offered the basal diet (P<0.05). In conclusion, these data support the hypothesis that dietary prawn shell chitosan exhibits anti-obesogenic potential through alterations to appetite, and feeding behaviour affecting satiety signals in vivo.
Highlights
Obesity and obesity-related disorders are reaching epidemic proportions worldwide
The potential of dietary chitosan to modulate the gut-brain-adipose tissue axis in favour of reduced appetite may be contributing to chitosans ability to reduce food intake and body weight gain in vivo
The present study hypothesised that dietary supplementation of chitosan would decrease appetite through modulation of hypothalamic, intestinal and adipose tissue regulators of appetite, reducing feed intake and body weight gain in the pig
Summary
Obesity and obesity-related disorders are reaching epidemic proportions worldwide. The potential of natural products to prevent obesity have been highlighted [1]. There is increasing interest in the use of natural resources as protective agents against obesity because of some harmful side-effects of synthetic compounds [2] Chitosan is a non-toxic nutritional supplement generally regarded as a safe compound [3]. In contrast chitosan has received much attention for its anti-obesity potential [6, 7], with dietary supplementation reducing feed intake in both mice [8] and pigs [7]. Ingestion of this natural polysaccharide increased serum leptin, a hormone which plays a key role in appetite suppression, suggesting a potential link between chitosan and appetite control [9]
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