The incidence of obesity, diabetes is rapidly increasing worldwide and the need for natural drugs against the disease has become stronger. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of oryzanol and ferulic acid on the lipid metabolism ...
The incidence of obesity, diabetes is rapidly increasing worldwide and the need for natural drugs against the disease has become stronger. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of oryzanol and ferulic acid on the lipid metabolism and glucose metabolism of high fat-fed mice.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
Male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into 4 groups: NC group fed with normal diet (NC group), HF group fed with high fat (17%) diet, HF-O group fed with high fat diet supplemented with 0.5% oryzanol and HF-FA group fed with high fat diet supplemented with 0.5% ferulic acid. All animals were allowed free access to the experimental diets and water for 7 weeks.
Experiment I: The concentrations of plasma total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) and HDL-C/TC ratio were measured. The activities of hepatic lipid-regulating enzymes, such as malic enzyme (ME), fatty acid synthetase (FAS) and Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), were also determined. The antioxidative state was measured by the detection of SOD, GSH-Px, catalse, glutathione reductase (GR), plasma TBARS, and erythrocyte TBARS
Experiment II: The blood glucose, glycogen and insulin levels were measured. The activities of hepatic glucose-regulating enzymes, such as glucokinase (GK), glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase) and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK), were also determined.
RESULTS:
The HF mice exhibited increased body weight gain, plasma and hepatic total cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations and lipid peroxidation rate, and reduced high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level. In general, they also showed lower hepatic antioxidant and higher lipid-regulating enzymes activities relative to those of NC group. Addition of oryzanol or ferulic acid in the diet counteracted these high fat-induced hyperlipidemia and oxidative stress
via increased fecal lipid excretion and regulation of antioxidant and lipogenic enzyme sactivities.
The HF-O and HF-FA groups exhibited significantly lower blood glucose level and G6pase and PEPCK activities and higher glycogen and insulin concentrations and GK activity compared with NC and HF groups.
DISCUSSION:
Results of this study illustrate that oryzanol and ferulic acid have relatively similar hypolipidemic actions and could be effective in lowering the risk of high fat diet-induced obesity. They also suggested that both oryzanol and ferulic acid could reduce the risk of high fat diet-induced hyperglycemia via regulation of insulin secretion and hepatic glucose-regulating enzyme activities.