Impact of A Cargo-Less Liposomal Formulation on Dietary Obesity-Related Metabolic Disorders in Mice

Abstract

Current therapeutic options for obesity often require pharmacological intervention with dietary restrictions. Obesity is associated with underlying inflammation due to increased tissue macrophage infiltration, and recent evidence shows that inflammation can drive obesity, creating a feed forward mechanism. Therefore, targeting obesity-induced macrophage infiltration may be an effective way of treating obesity. Here, we developed cargo-less liposomes (UTS-001) using 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, DOPC (synthetic phosphatidylcholine) as a single-agent to manage weight gain and related glucose disorders due to high fat diet (HFD) consumption in mice. UTS-001 displayed potent immunomodulatory properties, including reducing resident macrophage number in both fat and liver, downregulating liver markers involved in gluconeogenesis, and increasing marker involved in thermogenesis. As a result, UTS-001 significantly enhanced systemic glucose tolerance in vivo and insulin-stimulated cellular glucose uptake in vitro, as well as reducing fat accumulation upon ad libitum HFD consumption in mice. UTS-001 targets tissue residence macrophages to suppress tissue inflammation during HFD-induced obesity, resulting in improved weight control and glucose metabolism. Thus, UTS-001 represents a promising therapeutic strategy for body weight management and glycaemic control.

Differential Effects of ‘Vaping’ on Lipid and Glucose Profiles and Liver Metabolic Markers in Obese Versus Non-obese Mice

“…However, energy from the dietary fat in this study is still higher than the average intake of adult Australian males, and >22% higher than the upper limit of the accepted macronutrient distribution range ( Grech et al, 2018 ). Different from our previous observations of significant weight gain in C57BL/6 mice using the same diet ( Glastras et al, 2016 ; Chen et al, 2018b , c ; Komalla et al, 2020 ), Balb/c mice had less than 5% weight gain, yet with nearly doubled retroperitoneal and epididymal fat masses. This is consistent with the strain susceptibility to HFD-induced obesity ( Montgomery et al, 2013 ).…”

“…However, its impact on glucose and lipid metabolism is unclear. Therefore, using our well-established HFD diet feeding protocol ( Glastras et al, 2016 ; Chen et al, 2018b ; Komalla et al, 2020 ), we aimed to investigate in a mouse model whether nicotine-containing or nicotine-free e-vapour inhalation interacts with diet to affect glucose tolerance, blood lipid levels and liver metabolic markers.…”

Novel ι-Carrageenan Tetrasaccharide Alleviates Liver Lipid Accumulation via the Bile Acid–FXR–SHP/PXR Pathway to Regulate Cholesterol Conversion and Fatty Acid Metabolism in Insulin-Resistant Mice

“…Usually, insulin resistance was accompanied by excessive fat deposits . As shown in Figure , the body weight gain ratio, body mass index (BMI), white fat weight, liver weight, and liver index in the model group relative to the normal group all presented an obvious increase ( P < 0.05).…”

Effect of E-Vaping on Kidney Health in Mice Consuming a High-Fat Diet

“…The probes of the housekeeping 18s RNA were labelled with VIC ® dye, whilst the probes of target genes were labelled with FAM ® . The probe sequences provided by the manufacturer have been reported in our previous paper [ 33 ]. The housekeeping gene 18s rRNA was used as a reference gene, against which the target gene expression was calculated using the 2 −ΔΔCt method.…”