Bofutsushosan ameliorates obesity in mice through modulating PGC-1α expression in brown adipose tissues and inhibiting inflammation in white adipose tissues.

Abstract

The inducible co-activator PGC-1α plays a crucial role in adaptive thermogenesis and increases energy expenditure in brown adipose tissue (BAT). Meanwhile, chronic inflammation caused by infiltrated-macrophage in the white adipose tissue (WAT) is a target for the treatment of obesity. Bofutsushosan (BF), a traditional Chinese medicine composed of 17 crude drugs, has been widely used to treat obesity in China, Japan, and other Asia countries. However, the mechanism underlying anti-obesity remains to be elucidated. In the present study, we demonstrated that BF oral administration reduced the body weight of obese mice induced by high-fat diet (HFD) and alleviated the level of biochemical markers (P < 0.05), including blood glucose (Glu), total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL-C) and insulin. Our further results also indicated that oral BF administration increased the expression of PGC-1α and UCP1 in BAT. Moreover, BF also reduced the expression of inflammatory cytokines in WAT, such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). These findings suggested that the mechanism of BF against obesity was at least partially through increasing gene expression of PGC-1α and UCP1 for energy consumption in BAT and inhibiting inflammation in WAT.

• Authors: Ying-Ying Chen, Yan Yan, Zheng Zhao, Mei-Jing Shi, Yu-Bin Zhang
• Journal: Chinese journal of natural medicines (Chin J Nat Med) Vol. 14 Issue 6 Pg. 449-56 (Jun 2016) ISSN: 1875-5364 [Electronic] China
• PMID: 27473963 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2016 China Pharmaceutical University. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Cytokines
• Drugs, Chinese Herbal
• Interleukin-6
• Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma Coactivator 1-alpha
• Ppargc1a protein, mouse
• Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha
• Ucp1 protein, mouse
• Uncoupling Protein 1
• bofu-tsusho-san

Topics

• Adipose Tissue, Brown (drug effects, immunology)
• Adipose Tissue, White (drug effects, immunology)
• Animals
• Cytokines (genetics, metabolism)
• Drugs, Chinese Herbal (administration & dosage)
• Energy Metabolism (drug effects)
• Female
• Humans
• Interleukin-6 (genetics, immunology)
• Mice
• Obesity (drug therapy, genetics, immunology)
• Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma Coactivator 1-alpha (genetics, immunology)
• Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha (genetics, immunology)
• Uncoupling Protein 1 (genetics, metabolism)