The effects of the Rheum ribes plant extract on inflammation, extracellular matrix remodeling, and obesity suggest a therapeutic potential.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of obesity is increasing in the world, and the Type II diabetes associated with obesity led researchers to seek alternative methods to treat these two chronic diseases. In the case of obesity and diabetes, changes occur in the levels of inflammatory mediators. A study was conducted to investigate the molecular mechanism of the Rheum ribes L. plant regarding obesity and inflammation. METHODS AND RESULTS: Differentiated 3T3-L1 mouse cell lines were used as an experimental model. A dose-response relationship was established to determine at what dose and time of treatment the R. ribes L. plant extract would act effectively. To assess expression on the transcriptional level, q-PCR analyses were performed. The primers to evaluate the expression levels of genes such as Dgat1, Lpl, Fasn, ColV, Il-6, and Mcp1, which are known to be associated with obesity and insulin resistance, inflammation, and cell skeletal restructuring was designed using NCBI sequences. 18S was chosen as the housekeeping gene for normalization. CONCLUSION: It was found that applying 50 µg/mL and 100 µg/mL of R. ribes root extract to 3T3-L1 adipocyte cells for 24 and 48 h resulted in anti- obesity and anti-inflammatory effects on the genes examined at the transcriptional level. It is an effective study to understand the molecular mechanisms by which R. ribes, which is known to have anti-diabetic, anti-obesity and anti- inflammatory activities, and to establish a link between these activities.

Hypericum perforatum L.: a medicinal plant with potential as a curative agent against obesity-associated complications.

Obesity is a low-grade inflammatory disease that is getting increasingly common among adults and children and causes different complications. Insulin resistance, Type II diabetes, atherosclerosis, metabolic syndrome and hypertension are among the major health problems, that are associated with obesity. Some medications are used to treat obese individuals and metabolic surgery is recommended, if appropriate, for individuals with a BMI ≥ 40. Due to the fact that medications and metabolic surgery are not tolerated by all, researchers focus on alternative therapies. Medicinal plants comprise the most important group of these alternative treatments. Hypericum perforatum L. is the medicinal plant, which we focused on in this study. Hypericum perforatum L. has been recognized as a medicinally valuable plant for over 2000 years. It has been used for generations to treat anxiety, depression, insomnia, gastritis, hemorrhoids, wounds, and burns. Recent studies have indeed shown promising effects for the treatment of obesity. In this study, 3T3-L1 adipocytes were used to mimic the adipocyte differentiation associated with obesity in cellular terms. Lipoprotein lipase (Lpl), Diacylglycerol-O-acyltransferase 1 (Dgat1), Fatty acid synthase (Fasn) markers were used to study the lipid accumulation, and Collagen V (ColV) was used to study cell elasticity to investigate the relationship of the effects of the administration of Hypericum perforatum L. with obesity.