Metabolic diseases, such as glucose intolerance and nonalcoholic fatty-liver disease (NAFLD), are primary risk factors for life-threatening conditions such as diabetes, heart attack, stroke, and hepatic cancer. Extracts from the tropical tree Moringa oleifera show antidiabetic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer effects. Fermentation can further improve the safety and nutritional value of certain foods. We investigated the efficacy of fermented M. oleifera extract (FM) against high-fat diet (HFD)-induced glucose intolerance and hepatic lipid accumulation and investigated the underlying mechanisms by analyzing expression of proteins and genes involved in glucose and lipid regulation. C57BL/6 mice were fed with normal chow diet (ND) or HFD supplemented with distilled water (DW, control), nonfermented M. oleifera extract (NFM), or FM for 10 weeks. Although body weights were similar among HFD-fed treatment groups, liver weight was decreased, and glucose tolerance test (GTT) results improved in the FM group compared with DW and NFM groups. Hepatic lipid accumulation was also lower in the FM group, and expressions of genes involved in liver lipid metabolism were upregulated. In addition, HFD-induced endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, oxidative stress, and lipotoxicity in quadriceps muscles were decreased by FM. Finally, proinflammatory cytokine mRNA expression was decreased by FM in the liver, epididymal adipose tissue, and quadriceps of HFD-fed mice. FMs may decrease glucose intolerance and NAFLD under HFD-induced obesity by decreasing ER stress, oxidative stress, and inflammation.

BackgroundOnly few studies have investigated the role of probiotics in the development of obesity. We aimed to determine the efficacy and safety of an intake of Lactobacillus plantarum K50 (LPK) on body fat and lipid profiles in people with obesity.MethodsThis randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical trial involved 81 adults with a body mass index of 25–30 kg/m2 who were assigned randomly to a diet including 4 × 109 colony-forming unit of LPK or a placebo. Changes in body fat, anthropometric parameters, and biomarkers of obesity were compared using a linear mixed-effect model.ResultsAfter 12 weeks of treatment, body weight, fat mass, and abdominal fat area did not change significantly in the two groups. However, total cholesterol levels decreased from 209.4 ± 34.4 mg/dL to 203.5 ± 30.9 mg/dL in the LPK group, but increased from 194.7 ± 37.5 mg/dL to 199.9 ± 30.7 mg/dL in the placebo group (P = 0.037). Similarly, triglyceride levels decreased from 135.4 ± 115.8 mg/dL to 114.5 ± 65.9 mg/dL in the LPK group, with a significant difference between groups. LPK supplementation also tended to decrease leptin levels compared with placebo. It also changed the distribution of gut microbiota significantly, with an increase in L. plantarum and a decrease in Actinobacteria, both of whose changes in abundance were correlated with changes in visceral adiposity, with borderline significance.ConclusionA 12-week consumption of LPK reduced the total cholesterol and triglyceride levels significantly with favorable alterations in microbiota, suggesting potential benefits for controlling blood lipid profiles.

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Although the beneficial effects of probiotics in the prevention or treatment of metabolic disorders have been extensively researched, the precise mechanisms by which probiotics improve metabolic homeostasis are still not clear. Given that probiotics usually exert a comprehensive effect on multiple metabolic disorders, defining a concurrent mechanism underlying the multiple effects is critical to understand the function of probiotics. In this study, we identified the SIRT1-dependent or independent PGC-1α pathways in multiple organs that mediate the protective effects of a strain of Lactobacillus plantarum against high-fat dietinduced adiposity, glucose intolerance, and dyslipidemia. L. plantarum treatment significantly enhanced the expression of SIRT1, PPARα, and PGC-1α in the liver and adipose tissues under HFD-fed condition. L. plantarum treated mice also exhibited significantly increased expressions of genes involved in bile acid synthesis and reverse cholesterol transport in the liver, browning and thermogenesis of adipose tissue, and fatty acid oxidation in the liver and adipose tissue. Additionally, L. plantarum treatment significantly upregulated the expressions of adiponectin in adipose tissue, irisin in skeletal muscle and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), and FGF21 in SAT. These beneficial changes were associated with a significantly improved HFD-induced alteration of gut microbiota. Our findings suggest that the PGC-1α-mediated pathway could be regarded as a potential target in the development of probiotics-based therapies for the prevention and treatment of metabolic disorders.

Probiotics are defined as "live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host" (FAO/WHO 2002). While probiotics have several known benefits, there have been safety issues related to their use in humans and animals. In 2002, the Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) reported that probiotics may cause side-effect such as systemic infection, deleterious metabolism, and excessive immune response in susceptible subjects or exhibit harmful gene transfer (FAO/WHO 2002). Furthermore, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) announced safety assessment guidance for probiotics by focusing on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) [1] and made it mandatory to examine susceptibility of all bacterial strains used as feed additives to the most relevant antibiotics. As a basic requirement, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) should be determined for nine antibiotics (ampicillin, vancomycin, tetracycline, and others). The resistance of a bacterial strain to any specific antibiotic higher than the microbiological cut-off values defined by EFSA is deemed indicative of the presence of acquired resistance. Further, additional information is needed on the genetic basis of the AMR. For the genetic safety evaluation of microorganisms, EFSA recently recommended the taxonomic identification and characterization of their potential functional traits of concern, which may include virulence factors (VFs) and AMR [2,3].Lactobacillus plantarum, one of the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) widely used worldwide as a probiotic [4-7], was differently classified from genetically related Lactobacillus species on the basis of whole genome sequencing data and newly denominated as Lactiplantibacillus (Lp.) plantarum [8]. Many researchers have reported the safety of Lp. plantarum using molecular biological approaches, microbiological tools, and bioinformatics analyses [9-13]. However, the safety of Lp. plantarum strains cannot be guaranteed without verification, as some Lactobacillus strains have been reported to exhibit AMR and may not meet the EFSA guideline criteria. The most representative case was the intrinsic resistance of Lp. plantarum to vancomycin [14-16], caused by cell wall composition and structural changes [17]. Intrinsic resistance to antibiotics (sometimes termed as natural resistance) [1], inherent to a bacterial species, is considered relatively safe. In contrast to intrinsic resistance, non-intrinsic resistance to other antibiotics has been reported for other . The most important aspect while dealing with AMR is non-intrinsic and acquired resistance, which can be transferred to other bacteria byThe safety of the probiotic strain Q180, which exerts postprandial lipid-lowering effects, was bioinformatically and phenotypically evaluated. The genome of strain Q180 was completely sequenced, and single circular chromosome of 3,197,263 bp without any plasmid was generated. Phylogenetic and related analyses using16S rRNA gene and whole-genome sequences revealed that s...