Effect of Wakame and Carob Pod Snacks on Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Abstract

Snacks combining different functional ingredients could represent a useful therapeutic strategy against NAFLD. The present study aimed to analyze the effect of two snack formulations based on carob and wakame flour in the treatment for NAFLD in rats. For this purpose, metabolic syndrome was induced in 50 adult rats by a high-fat high-fructose diet over eight weeks. After this period, rats were fed either normal calorie diets supplemented or not with snack A (1/50 wakame/carob pod) and snack B (1/5 wakame/carob pod) for four additional weeks. After sacrifice, liver composition and serum parameters were analyzed. Different pathways of triacylglycerol metabolism in liver were studied including fatty acid oxidation, fatty acid synthesis, triglyceride assembly and release, fatty acid uptake and glucose uptake. Oxidative stress was also measured. Snack treatment, and mainly B snack, reduced liver triacylglycerol levels by increasing fat oxidation. Moreover, this snack reduced oxidative stress. Therefore, this snack formulation could represent an interesting tool useful for fatty liver treatment.

Supplementation with a Carob (Ceratonia siliqua L.) Fruit Extract Attenuates the Cardiometabolic Alterations Associated with Metabolic Syndrome in Mice

“…Our results are in agreement with those reported by other authors both in experimental animals [22,23] and in humans [25,26,49]. However, contrary to other studies [45,50,51], CSAT+ ® treatment was unable to reduce triglyceride levels neither in hepatic tissue (data not shown), nor in the plasma. The discrepancies between these studies may be explained by differences in the species used (mice vs rats and rabbits) or by differences in the duration of the high fat diet.…”

“…Differences could also be explained by the dose of carob extract. In this study, the dose of carob extract was similar to the one used in previous studies with rodents [23,45] and higher than the one used in human studies [47,49,52]. New experiments are needed to assess the specific dose of this specific extract for human consumption.…”

“…Likewise, other authors have reported that treatment with carob pod affects neither body weight, nor fat mass in vivo [27]. However, it exerts a strong delipidating effect in vitro on adipocyte cultures [31] and in vivo reduces liver triacylglycerol levels in obese rats [45] and in rabbits with hypercholesterolemia [28].…”

Association between consumption of edible seaweeds and newly diagnosed non‐alcohol fatty liver disease: The TCLSIH Cohort Study

“…These components possess anti‐inflammatory activities by activating anti‐inflammatory responses and/or suppressing the pro‐inflammatory responses, and antioxidative effects by reducing lipid oxidation and increasing the endogenous antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase 12 . Furthermore, several animal studies have suggested that seaweed supplementation may have a protective effect against NAFLD 13,14 . Therefore, it was hypothesized that edible seaweed consumption might have a beneficial effect in the prevention of NAFLD.…”

Hypercaloric Diet and Vitamin E Intake

“…NAFLD molecular pathogenesis is not completely elucidated yet. Obesity should be considered an important risk factor for NAFLD [16][17][18][19]. The liver, the headquarter of important biochemical processes (gluconeogenesis, ureogenesis, oxidative phosphorylation, glycolysis, lipogenesis) is also an important player in the detoxification processes.…”