Tectorigenin ameliorated high-fat diet-induced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease through anti-inflammation and modulating gut microbiota in mice.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a complex pathogenesis of liver disease combined with liver inflammation and gut microbiota dysbiosis. Tectorigenin (Tg) is derived from many plants with excellent anti-inflammation activity. However, the beneficial effect of Tg on NAFLD associated with gut microbiota remained unclear. This study aimed to investigate the underlying beneficial effect of Tg on NAFLD in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice. Results showed that Tg alleviated lipid profiles and liver steatosis, and reduced serum lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and total bile acid (TBA) levels. Besides, RT-qPCR and Western blot suggested that Tg alleviated hepatic lipid accumulation through inhibiting the lipogenesis and promoting the lipolysis, prevented gut-derived LPS-induced liver inflammatory via restoring intestinal barrier and restraining pro-inflammatory cytokines release, meanwhile, promoted the BA circulation via activating BA receptor and promoting BA synthesis. Moreover, Tg reverted the HFD-induced gut microbial dysbiosis by promoting the growth of beneficial Akkermansia, and inhibiting the proportions of harmful microbes, including Blautia, Lachnoclostridium, Lachnospiraceae_UCG-006, Roseburia, Romboutsia and Faecalibaculum, which were highly correlated with NAFLD-related parameters in serum and liver. Thus, Tg could attenuate NAFLD through mediating the liver-gut axis, and it could be used as a dietary supplement for NAFLD treatment via its anti-inflammatory and prebiotic effects.

Flavonoids from Whole-Grain Oat Alleviated High-Fat Diet-Induced Hyperlipidemia via Regulating Bile Acid Metabolism and Gut Microbiota in Mice.

A high-fat diet (HFD) causes hyperlipidemia, which worsens disturbances in bile acid (BA) metabolism and gut microbiota. This study aimed to investigate the regulation of flavonoids from whole-grain oat (FO) on BA metabolism and gut microbiota in HFD-induced hyperlipidemic mice. The experiment results showed that FO improved serum lipid profiles and decreased body weight and lipid deposition in HFD-fed mice. Through real-time qualitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and Western blot assays, by up-regulating the expression of PPARα, CPT-1, CYP7A1, FXR, TGR5, NTCP, and BSTP, and down-regulating those of SREBP-1c, FAS, and ASBT, FO suppressed lipogenesis, promoted lipolysis and BA synthesis, and efflux to faeces via the FXR pathway. 16s rRNA sequencing revealed that FO significantly increased Akkermansia and significantly decreased Lachnoclostridium, Blautia, Colidextribacter, and Desulfovibrio. Spearman's correlation analysis showed that these bacteria were strongly correlated with hyperlipidemia-related parameters. Therefore, our results indicated that FO possessed an antihyperlipidemic effect via regulating the gut-liver axis, i.e., BA metabolism and gut microbiota.

Effect of embryo-remaining oat rice on the lipid profile and intestinal microbiota in high-fat diet fed rats.

Embryo-remaining oat rice (EROR), as a newly developed oat product, is popular in China for its good taste, but little is known about its healthy functions. In this study, the effects of EROR on lipid metabolism regulation were investigated in in vitro and in vivo models. The results showed that the oat ethanol extracts significantly alleviated lipid accumulation, total cholesterol and triglyceride levels in HepG2 cells. EROR supplementation dramatically improved the lipid profile in the serum and liver and downregulated the expression levels of HMGCR, SREBP-1C and FAS, which are related to lipid metabolic disorder in high-fat diet (HFD) fed rats. A HFD decreases the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in the cecum, which are related to intestinal microbiota dysbiosis. The intake of EROR significantly increased the total SCFAs, acetate and propionate and promoted the abundance of SCFA-producing bacteria. Furthermore, the intake of EROR led to abundant increases in Bifidobacterium and Akkermansia and decreases of Rombutsia, Fusicatenibacter, Holdemanella and Turicibacter, which were negatively and positively correlated with the lipid metabolism-related indices. These results provide evidence that EROR is a good functional food candidate to ameliorate lipid metabolic disorder and hyperlipidemia.

Adsorption of Cu(II) ion by a novel hordein electrospun nanofiber modified by ß-cyclodextrin.

In this study, hordein and hordein/N,N'-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) nanofiber membranes were prepared by electrospinning technique. Then the fabricated membranes were modified with ß-cyclodextrin (ß-CD) to remove heavy metal ions from aqueous solution. The prepared nanofiber membranes were characterized by ATR-FTIR, SEM and XRD. The diameters of the nanofibers were determined to be around 600-910 nm and ß-CD was successfully attached to the nanofiber membrane, which was confirmed by ATR-FTIR and XRD analysis. Cu(II) was selected as the model ion to investigate the heavy metal adsorption properties of the membranes. Adsorption capacities of the membranes increased with a higher initial pH, adsorption temperature and a longer adsorption time before reaching the saturation point. The adsorption isotherm results were described with the Langmuir model. It was found that additions of MBA and ß-CD at proper concentrations could significantly improve the adsorption capacities and the maximum adsorption of hordein, hordein/MBA, and hordein/MBA/ß-CD nanofiber membranes were 64.94, 81.97, and 88.50 mg/g, respectively. Furthermore, regeneration study showed that these hordein nanofiber membranes possessed reasonably good reusability. The novel functionalized hordein/MBA/ß-CD nanofiber membranes have great potential in the application of water treatment.

Protective effects of mung bean (Vigna radiata L.) and pea (Pisum sativum L.) against high-fat-induced oxidative stress.

Hyperlipidemia is closely related to oxidative stress, and it has been proved that the intake of legumes can protect the body from chronic diseases related to oxidative stress. In this study, we investigated the protective effects of mung beans and peas against high-fat-diet-induced rats. It was found that, with 50% addition of mung beans or peas, the intake of mung beans and peas could significantly restore the levels of serum total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Liver staining also showed that high-fat diet (HFD) led to liver lesions, whereas whole-grain intake could significantly relieve these symptoms. Compared with the HFD group, the antioxidant defense system and antioxidant gene expression in administered legume groups improved markedly. Furthermore, the antioxidant activities of the two legume extracts were determined. Characterization showed that the ethanol extracts of mung beans and peas possessed high antioxidant activities, for their ability to scavenge ABTS and DPPH, reduce Fe3+ and their antilipid peroxidation capacity. Treatments with ethanol extracts at different doses could restore the levels of intracellular lipid, malondialdehyde, and antioxidant enzyme activities in oleic acid-induced HepG2 cells. All these results suggested that mung beans and peas or their extracts may be utilized as good candidates of natural antioxidant agents.

The states of water in glutinous rice flour characterized by interpreting desorption isotherm.

Water content of glutinous rice flour were determined after equilibrium at water activity (aw) of 0.06-0.98 and temperature of 10, 20 and 30 °C. Distribution of water in different states and its evolution with aw were characterized using four composite models. Interactions of water molecules with solid matrix and themselves were further evaluated. The Park model was a more realistic and mechanism-based approach for describing water desorption of glutinous rice flour. Increased equilibrium water induced by lowering temperature existed mostly as strongly bound water with only a few parts as weakly bound water. The water-polymer thermodynamic incompatibility predominated the water mobility, and resulted in a rapid decrease of diffusion coefficient at aw > ~0.7. Water diffusivity behavior with aw suggested water clustering at high aw levels. The Zimm-Lundberg theory, Park model and Brown analysis all revealed that critical aw of water clustering was of 0.81-0.85, depending on temperature, but gave inconsistent prediction about mean cluster size.