The impact of high-glucose or high-fat diets on the metabolomic profiling of mice

Metabolic Profiling Changes Induced by Fermented Blackberries in High-Fat-Diet-Fed Mice Utilizing Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Analysis

The aim of this study was to investigate the metabolic changes associated with the anti-obesity effects of fermented blackberry extracts in the liver tissues of high-fat-diet-fed mice using mass spectrometry-based metabolomics analysis. C57BL/6J mice were divided into eight groups: normal-diet-fed mice, high-fat-diet-fed mice, high-fat diet treated with blackberry extract, high-fat-diet mice treated with blackberry fermented by L. plantarum, and high-fat diet with blackberry fermented by L. brevis. After 12 weeks, the high-fat-diet group exhibited a greater increase in liver weight compared to the control group, and among the groups, the group administered with blackberry fermented with L. plantarum showed the most pronounced reduction in liver weight. As the primary organ responsible for amino acid metabolism, the liver is crucial for maintaining amino acid homeostasis. In our study, we observed that the levels of several essential amino acids, including isoleucine and valine, were decreased by the high-fat diet, and were recovered by administration of blackberry extract fermented with L. plantarum. Our results demonstrated the potential of blackberry extract fermented with L. plantarum as a functional material for metabolic disorders by restoring some of the amino acid metabolism disturbances induced by a high-fat diet.

Citrus p-Synephrine Improves Energy Homeostasis by Regulating Amino Acid Metabolism in HFD-Induced Mice

p-Synephrine is a common alkaloid widely distributed in citrus fruits. However, the effects of p-synephrine on the metabolic profiles of individuals with energy abnormalities are still unclear. In the study, we investigated the effect of p-synephrine on energy homeostasis and metabolic profiles using a high fat diet (HFD)-induced mouse model. We found that p-synephrine inhibited the gain in body weight, liver weight and white adipose tissues weight induced by HFD. p-Synephrine supplementation also reduced levels of serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) but not to a statistically significant degree. Histological analysis showed that HFD induced excessive lipid accumulation and glycogen loss in the liver and adipocyte enlargement in perirenal fat tissue, while p-synephrine supplementation reversed the changes induced by HFD. Moreover, HFD feeding significantly increased mRNA expression levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and reduced the mRNA expression level of interleukin-10 (IL-10) compared to the control group, while p-synephrine supplementation significantly reversed these HFD-induced changes. Liver and serum metabolomic analysis showed that p-synephrine supplementation significantly altered small molecule metabolites in liver and serum in HFD mice and that the changes were closely associated with improvement of energy homeostasis. Notably, amino acid metabolism pathways, both in liver and serum samples, were significantly enriched. Our study suggests that p-synephrine improves energy homeostasis probably by regulating amino acid metabolism in HFD mice, which provides a novel insight into the action mechanism of p-synephrine modulating energy homeostasis.