Erchen Decoction Ameliorates Lipid Metabolism by the Regulation of the Protein CAV‐1 and the Receptors VLDLR, LDLR, ABCA1, and SRB1 in a High‐Fat Diet Rat Model

Abstract

Lipid metabolism disorder is a common metabolic disorder characterized by abnormal lipid levels in blood. Erchen decoction (ECD) is a traditional Chinese medicine prescription, which is used for the treatment of diseases caused by retention of phlegm dampness. It has been reported to ameliorate the disorder of lipid metabolism. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects and underlying mechanisms of ECD in lipid metabolism disorder induced by a high-fat diet (HFD) in rats. ECD (4.35g/kg/d) and atorvastatin (10mg/kg/d, positive control) were orally administered to HFD-fed rats for four weeks. The parameters, food, water consumption, body weight, body length, liver, and visceral fat weight and the content of serum lipids and lipid transporters were assessed. The effects of ECD on the mRNA and protein expression levels of lipid transport factors were measured by real-time PCR and western blotting. The present study demonstrated that ECD improved the disorders of serum lipid and lipid transporters in HFD-fed rats, TG (0.70±0.08 mmol/L, p<0.01), LDL-C (1.50±0.19 mmol/L, p<0.01), LDL (1.38±0.21 mmol/L, p<0.05), and oxLDL (1.77±0.39 ng/mL, p<0.05) were downregulated, while HDL-C (0.87±0.13 mmol/L, p<0.01), FFA (0.62±0.13 mmol/L, p<0.05), HDL (38.8±4.0 mg/dL, p<0.05), and CETP (903.6±120.0 ng/mL, p<0.05) were upregulated. But ECD obviously had no effects on the indices food/water/energy intake, body/tissue (liver and fat) weight, and BMI (p>0.05). Concomitantly, ECD reversed the abnormal expressions of those lipid transport factors in the liver and visceral fat.

The Effects of Erchen Decoction on Gut Microbiota and Lipid Metabolism Disorders in Zucker Diabetic Fatty Rats

“…Compared with traditional dietary model, this animal model has a shorter time interval and is stable, which makes it ideal to study obesity. We found that ECD treatment could help the negative effects of obesity, including weight loss, improvements in IR, and the regulation of dyslipidemia, which is consistent with previous studies (Gao et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2017;Ding et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2020b;Lee et al, 2020) and illustrates that ECD has a regulatory effect on obesity caused by genetic factors. However, the regulatory effects of ECD on TC and HDL-C in blood lipids are not currently consistent, which might be related to the different models and drug concentrations.…”

“…ECD can promote the expression of CDKAL1 and improve the function of islet cells, thereby ameliorating insulin secretion (Gao et al, 2015). Moreover, the intervention effects by which ECD improves lipid metabolism include the inflammatory response (Lee et al, 2020) and lipid transport (Ding et al, 2018). The lipid metabolic balance is the result of a combination of lipogenesis and lipolysis.…”

“…Erchen Decoction (ECD), a traditional Chinese medicine formula, was first recorded in the Taiping Huimin Formula Bureau in the Song Dynasty, and is mainly used to treat phlegm dampness syndrome due to spleen dysfunction and dampness accumulation. Modern studies have found that ECD has beneficial weight loss, anti-inflammatory, and anti-oxidation effects, and significantly improves decreased insulin sensitivity (Zhang et al, 2017) and glucose and lipid metabolism disorders, especially lipid metabolism in metabolic diseases (Gao et al, 2015;Ding et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2020b;Lee et al, 2020). In recent years, growing evidence has linked changes in gut microbiota with insulin sensitivity (Pedersen et al, 2016) and lipid metabolism (Kindt et al, 2018), and is now a target for obesity treatment (Maruvada et al, 2017).…”

Effect of Huoxiang Zhengqi Pill on Early Neurological Deterioration in Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke Undergoing Recanalization Therapy and Predictive Effect of Essen Score

“…If the body fluid accumulates, it is easy to produce phlegm, which can lead to vascular blockage. Animal studies showed that Erchen decoction (the same ingredients as HXZQ) could regulate the caveolae mRNA expression in rats fed with high-fat diet, lower the blood glucose, regulate the lipid metabolism, and reduce the insulin resistance; it also increased the expression of CDKAL1 MRNA and protein in mouse liver and subcutaneous fat and promoted the secretion of insulin [ 24 ]. In addition, glial cells first respond to AIS by upregulating transcription of early proinflammatory cytokines, such as TNF- α , leading to neuronal death and releasing neurotoxic substances into the bloodstream, further enhancing metalloproteinase expression [ 25 , 26 ].…”

Network pharmacology‐based investigation to explore the effect and mechanism of Erchen decoction against the nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

“…As for the potential mechanisms of ECD, only limited results have been obtained. Ding et al (2018) reported that ECD could ameliorate lipid metabolism by regulating the lipid transporters and their receptors (Gao et al, 2015), indicating that ECD could promote the CDKAL1 expression, ameliorate islet cell function, and raise insulin levels.…”