Effects of Opuntia humifusa Supplementation on Lipid Peroxidation and SOD Protein Expression in the Liver, Kidney, and Skeletal Muscle of Rats Fed a High-fat Diet

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Opuntia humifusa supplementation on lipid peroxidation and superoxide dismutase (SOD) protein expression at resting state in various organs of rats fed a high-fat diet. Sixteen Sprague-Dawley male rats, 6 weeks of age, were randomly divided into two groups: a control diet group (CG, n=8) and an experimental diet group (EG, n=8). They were given a high-fat diet (CG) or a diet supplemented with 5% of O. humifusa (EG) for 8 weeks. The results showed that the malondialdehyde (MDA) levels of the kidney and the liver were significantly lower in the EG group than in the CG group (p<0.01). In addition, the MDA levels in the skeletal muscle of the EG group tended to be lower than those in the CG group, but this difference was not significant. The Cu, Zn-SOD protein expression in the kidney of the EG group was significantly increased compared with that of the CG group (p<0.01). The Mn-SOD protein expression in the skeletal muscle of the EG group was significantly increased compared with that of the CG group (p<0.01).These results suggest that O. humifusa supplementation has antioxidative properties, which are exerted in a specific organ manner, and that it inhibits the action of lipid peroxidation and the expression of SOD in rats fed a high-fat diet.

Beneficial Effects of Opuntia humifusa (Korean Cheonnyuncho) on Human Health Based on Antioxidant Properties: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…reported that the vitamin C content in an OH stem is approximately 260.94 mg/100 g, which is higher than that in Opuntia ficus-indica [12]. Kwon et al (2012) and Kang et al (2013) found abundant minerals, such as calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), sodium (Na), and potassium (K), in OH stems and fruits [13,14]. The abundance of natural antioxidants in these plants, primarily in their phenolic and flavonoid compounds, is believed to contribute significantly to their antioxidant capacity.…”

“…The main characteristics of the 15 studies are summarized in Table 1. Among the fifteen articles, four studies reported a positive association between the optical application of OH and reductions in skin aging [5,[19][20][21], nine studies found anti-cancer benefits [6,7,15,[21][22][23][24][25][26], and three studies demonstrated the beneficial effects of OH in reducing symptoms of diabetes [9,11,13,14,27]. OH species are cultivated primarily in Korea; thus, all of these studies were performed only in Korea, covering the period from 2005 to 2020.…”