Suppression of Obesity by Black Adzuki Beans (Vigna angularis) in High‐fat Diet Fed Obese Mouse Model

Abstract

The primary objective of this study was to investigate the obesity inhibitory effects of Black Adzuki Bean (BAB) extract on high‐fat diet induced obese mice. Four‐week‐old C57BL/6J mice were fed for 12 weeks with control diets containing 10% kcal from fat (CD) or high‐fat diets containing 60% kcal from fat (HD) or high‐fat diet + 1% freeze‐dried ethanolic extract of BAB (BAB‐1) or high‐fat diet + 0.08% kaempferol.After 12 weeks,animals fed with HD along with BAB‐1 showed significantly lower final body weight compared with animals fed with HD alone. Compared to HD fed mice, dietary BAB‐1 supplemented mice showed significantly reduced epididymal and mesenteric fat weight along with fat cell size. BAB‐1 dramatically decreased signs of liver pathology. BAB‐1 mice had significantly decreased liver weight and number of hepatic lipid droplet compared with HD mice. These mice also had a significantly lower liver triglyceride and total cholesterol level, and lower concentrations of serum ALT and AST. The epididymal fat tissue mRNA levels of the lipogenesis‐associated genes (PPARγ, FAS, LPL, CD36) were significantly suppressed, while higher expression of lipolytic genes (ATGL, HSL, PPARα, ACOX, CPT‐1α) were observed in the BAB‐1 supplemented mice than the HD mice. Overall, the black adzuki bean extract demonstrated as a potential dietary supplement capable of attenuating obesity. (This work was carried out with the support of “Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development Project No. PJ009218” Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea)