Regular Tart Cherry Intake Alters Abdominal Adiposity, Adipose Gene Transcription, and Inflammation in Obesity-Prone Rats Fed a High Fat Diet

Abstract

Obesity, systemic inflammation, and hyperlipidemia are among the components of metabolic syndrome, a spectrum of phenotypes that can precede the development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Animal studies show that intake of anthocyanin-rich extracts can affect these phenotypes. Anthocyanins can alter the activity of tissue peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs), which affect energy substrate metabolism and inflammation. However, it is unknown if physiologically relevant, anthocyanin-containing whole foods confer similar effects to concentrated, anthocyanin extracts. The effect of anthocyanin-rich tart cherries was tested in the Zucker fatty rat model of obesity and metabolic syndrome. For 90 days, rats were pair-fed a higher fat diet supplemented with either 1% (wt/wt) freeze-dried, whole tart cherry powder or with a calorie- and macronutrient-matched control diet. Tart cherry intake was associated with reduced hyperlipidemia, percentage fat mass, abdominal fat (retroperitoneal) weight, retroperitoneal interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) expression, and plasma IL-6 and TNF-alpha. Tart cherry diet also increased retroperitoneal fat PPAR-alpha and PPAR-gamma mRNA (P = .12), decreased IL-6 and TNF-alpha mRNA, and decreased nuclear factor kappaB activity. In conclusion, in at-risk obese rats fed a high fat diet, physiologically relevant tart cherry consumption reduced several phenotypes of metabolic syndrome and reduced both systemic and local inflammation. Tart cherries may reduce the degree or trajectory of metabolic syndrome, thereby reducing risk for the development of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Tart cherry supplementation improves working memory, hippocampal inflammation, and autophagy in aged rats

“…Cyanidin is the major anthocyanin in tart cherries (Seeram et al 2001a) followed by flavan-3-ols and flavonols (Bhagwat et al 2014). Studies using cell lines, animal models, and humans demonstrated that the phytochemicals found in tart cherry confer health benefits by inducing cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis in precancerous and cancer cells (Kang et al 2003;Bobe et al 2006;Martin and Wooden 2012;Sehitoglu et al 2014), decreasing triglyceride and total cholesterol levels (Seymour et al 2008), reducing inflammation (Seeram et al 2001b;Tall et al 2004;Seymour et al 2009;Ou et al 2012), and decreasing oxidative stress (Kim et al 2005;Traustadottir et al 2009). Furthermore, a study by Kirakosyan showed that cherry anthocyanins accumulated in the brain of young rats after 3 weeks of feeding with either 1 or 10 % tart cherry-supplemented diets in a dose-dependent manner (Kirakosyan et al 2015).…”

Tart cherry in amelioration of pain in the elderly

“…However, PPAR-␣ mRNA was increased 2.7-fold. It is interesting that the cherry treatment had no effect on body weight gain in the earlier study using lean rats, but in the study with the rat model prone to obesity and inflammation there was a significant reduction in body weight and abdominal fat mass [11,12]. The results suggest that tart cherry intake resulted in reduced inflammation in retroperitoneal fat, though specificity of the action to cell type within the adipose tissue was not determined [11,12].…”

“…A subsequent study from Seymour et al showed whole tart cherry powder reduced circulating plasma levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-␣) and IL-6 after 90 days of treatment in obesity-prone Zucker rats fed a high fat diet [12]. The authors observed plasma reductions of 44% in IL-6 and 40% in TNF-␣ after 90 days.…”

“…Anthocyanin intake in animals may contribute to improvements in certain chronic diseases associated with aging, such as hyperlipidemia, obesity, atherosclerosis, and Alzheimer's [10][11][12]. Matchynski et al found that a tart cherry extract combined with a fish and emu oil supplement lessened induced cognitive deficits in an Alzheimer's mouse model.…”

“…The purpose of this review is to summarize and critically examine in vitro and in vivo human and animal studies (Table 1) on the efficacy of tart cherry products for pain relief in chronic diseases. Since the majority of the published human studies [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] are insufficiently powered, it is not possible to conduct a meta-analysis to ascertain the role of tart cherry in pain relief.…”