Abstract
BackgroundChinese medicine has been proposed as a novel strategy for the prevention of metabolic disorders such as obesity. The present study tested 17 Chinese medicinal herbs were tested for their potential anti-obesity effects.MethodsThe herbs were evaluated in terms of their abilities to stimulate the transcription of Apolipoprotein A-IV (ApoA-IV) in cultured Caco-2/TC7 enterocytes. The herbs that showed stimulating effects on ApoA-IV transcription were further evaluated in terms of their abilities to reduce the formation of triglyceride in differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes.ResultsApoA-IV transcription was stimulated by Rhizoma Alismatis and Radix Angelica Sinensis in a dose- and time-dependent manner in cultured Caco-2/TC7 cells. Moreover, these two herbs reduced the amount of triglyceride in differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes.ConclusionThe results suggest that Rhizoma Alistmatis and Radix Angelica Sinensis may have potential anti-obesity effects as they stimulate ApoA-IV transcription and reduce triglyceride formation.
Highlights
Chinese medicine has been proposed as a novel strategy for the prevention of metabolic disorders such as obesity
A promoter-reporter system containing a human Apolipoprotein A-IV (ApoA-IV) promoter tagged with a luciferase reporter gene was employed [27]. This reporter construct was stably transfected into cultured Caco-2/TC7 cells for the screening of potential drugs that regulate the transcriptional activity of ApoA-IV promoter in gut cells
The induction effect was observed at a higher concentration of 1:1000; the ApoA-IV mRNA was up-regulated to nearly 6 folds compared with the buffer-treated control
Summary
Chinese medicine has been proposed as a novel strategy for the prevention of metabolic disorders such as obesity. The present study tested 17 Chinese medicinal herbs were tested for their potential anti-obesity effects. Obesity is one of the metabolic disorders attributed to various factors such as uncontrolled food intake, environment and lack of exercises. More and more people in China live a sedentary lifestyle and consume calorie-rich foods [2]. Between 1992 and 2002, more than 60 million people became obese in China [3] where the prevalence of obesity is likely to increase [4,5,6]. The current choices for anti-obesity medications are quite limited and some anti-obesity medicines have serious or even life-threatening side effects [8]. There is a pressing need for new and/or alternative treatments against obesity
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
