Anti-obesity effects of Spirulina platensis protein hydrolysate by modulating brain-liver axis in high-fat diet fed mice

Abstract

Spirulina platensis is a blue-green algae with potential anti-obesity effects. In this study, the anti-obesity effects of whole Spirulina platensis (WSP), Spirulina platensis protein (SPP) and Spirulina platensis protein hydrolysate (SPPH) were compared in high-fat diet fed mice, and the potential acting mechanism of SPPH was also investigated. Totally, SPPH exhibited good anti-obesity effects (reducing 39.8%±9.7% of body weight), lowering 23.8%±1.6% of serum glucose, decreasing 20.8%±1.4% of total cholesterol, while positive drug Simvastatin had the corresponding values: 8.3%±4.6%, 24.8%±1.9% and -2.1%±0.2%, respectively. Subsequently, PCR array was used to conduct gene expression analysis in brain and liver tissues of SPPH-treated mice, which displayed distinctly different expression pattern. The most markedly changed genes included: Acadm (-34.7 fold), Gcg (2.5 fold), Adra2b (2 fold) and Ghsr (2 fold) in brain; Retn (39 fold), Fabp4 (15.5 fold), Ppard (6 fold) and Slc27a1 (5.4 fold) in liver. Further network analysis demonstrated that the significantly expressed genes in brain and liver tissues were mapped into an interacting network, suggesting a modulatory effect on brain-liver axis, major pathways were involved in the axis: PPAR, adipocytokine, AMPK, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and MAPK. This study showed that Spirulina platensis protein hydrolysate possessed anti-obesity effect in mice.

Spirulina Enhances Bone Modeling in Growing Male Rats by Regulating Growth-Related Hormones

“…The antioxidant compounds in spirulina, such as phycobilins and phycocyanins, also inhibit the activities of catalytic enzymes, such as lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase, or enhance the activity of enzymes, such as glutathione peroxidase, catalase, and superoxide dismutase [59,60]. These polyphenols were reported to have anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antioxidant, antithrombotic, vasodilatory, antidiabetic, neuroprotective, hepatoprotective, and anticarcinogenic properties [21,22,24,28,29,32,[35][36][37][59][60][61][62][63]. However, the metabolic pathways for the formation of phenolic compounds in spirulina and their importance are still unknown [64].…”

“…It has a high content of total phenolic compounds such as catechin hydrate, epicatechin, pyrocatechol, C-phycocyanin and β-carotene, which contribute to the major antioxidant activity of spirulina. The phenolic compounds present in spirulina are primarily involved in the redox mechanism and function to prevent the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), eventually inhibiting inflammatory responses via anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory mechanisms that have protective effects against various human diseases such as mild chronic inflammatory disease [22][23][24][25].…”

Anti-obesity effects of individual or combination treatment with Spirulina platensis and green coffee bean aqueous extracts in high-fat diet-induced obese rats

“…However, the levels of ALT, AST, ALP, and albumin were significantly different between the group IIb and group IIa. Treatment with Spirulina is reported to significantly decrease the levels of cholesterol, serum triacylglycerol, and LDL-C and to significantly increase the levels of HDL-C (El-Sheekh et al 2014;Zhao et al 2019).…”

“…Spirulina is a potential therapeutic agent for hepatotoxicity caused by oxidative stress and the antioxidative potential of Spirulina was related to its phycocyanin component (Hussein et al 2015). Recent clinical trials showed promising effects of Spirulina for reducing body weight in obese humans (Moradi et al 2019) and mice (Zhao et al 2019).…”

Current Evidence to Propose Different Food Supplements for Weight Loss: A Comprehensive Review

“…The role of spirulina on body weight control is not fully elucidated yet. In murine models, spirulina extracts administration showed anti-obesity and lipids-lowering effects [128,129], mediated by different mechanisms, such as adipogenesis suppression, browning of white adipose tissue [129], and modification in brain and liver genes expression [128]. In humans, it proved effective in decreasing appetite [130].…”