Improvement of High-Fat Diet-Induced Obesity by Xanthigen^® in C57BL/6N Mice

Improvement of High-Fat Diet-Induced Obesity by Xanthigen^® in C57BL/6N Mice

Choi, Kyeong-Mi & Lee, Youn-Sun & Kim, Wonkyun & Choi, Yung-Hyun & Kwak, Youn-Gil & Jung, Jae-Chul & Lee, Jeongrai & Yoo, Hwan-Soo

(2012) JOURNAL OF LIFE SCIENCE. 22. 1697-1703. 10.5352/JLS.2012.22.12.1697.

Abstract

Obesity is a risk factor for numerous metabolic diseases. Recently, naturally occurring compounds that may improve obesity have received increasing attention. Xanthigen is a mixture of fucoxanthin and punicic acid derived from brown seaweed and pomegranate seed, respectively, which were traditionally used for lipid-lowering effects in humans. In this study, we investigated whether Xanthigen attenuates high-fat diet-induced obesity in C57BL/6N mice. The mice were fed on a normal diet (ND), high-fat diet (HFD), HFD plus 1% Xanthigen or HFD plus 1% green tea extract (GTE) for 11 weeks. Food efficiency ratio (FER) and body weight of mice fed HFD plus Xanthigen was significantly reduced compared to that in HFD-fed mice. Consistent with the results in body weight change, Xanthigen also significantly decreased the weights of epididymal adipose tissue, retroperitoneal adipose tissue, and liver in HFD plus 1% Xanthigen-fed mice. Serum level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol in HFD plus Xanthigen-fed mice was significantly decreased compared to that in HFD-fed mice. These results suggest that Xanthigen may be useful in the development of functional health food for anti-obesity.