Pear Extract and Malaxinic Acid Reverse Obesity, Adipose Tissue Inflammation, and Hepatosteatosis in Mice

Abstract

Scope: Obesity and diabetes are major public health problems and are emerging as pandemics. Considerable evidence suggests that pear fruit consumption is associated with a lower risk of obesity-related complications. Thus, the present study is conducted to investigate the therapeutic potential of pear extract (PE) for reversing obesity and associated metabolic complications in high-fat diet-induced obese mice. Methods and results: Obesity is induced in male C57BL/6 mice fed a high-fat diet for 11 weeks. After the first 6 weeks on the diet, obese mice are administered vehicle or PE for 5 weeks. PE treatment decreases body weight gain, expands white adipose tissue (WAT), and causes hepatic steatosis in obese mice, as well as inhibits adipogenesis and lipogenesis. Impaired glucose tolerance and insulin resistance are improved by PE. In addition, PE reduces macrophage infiltration and expression of pro-inflammatory genes and deactivates mitogen-activated protein kinases in WAT. Finally, malaxinic acid is identified as an active component responsible for the anti-obesity effects of PE in mice. Conclusion: The results demonstrate that PE supplementation ameliorates diet-induced obesity and associated metabolic complications and suggest the health-beneficial effects of both pear fruits and malaxinic acid in counteracting these diseases.

Theophylline Extracted from Fu Brick Tea Affects the Metabolism of Preadipocytes and Body Fat in Mice as a Pancreatic Lipase Inhibitor

“…We used PET-CT to evaluate the effect of FBT on perirenal fat and fatty liver hypertrophy in mice. Glucose and insulin tolerance tests were performed according to a previous paper [ 44 ].…”

A review on the potential use of natural products in overweight and obesity

“…Although it has a low bioavailability, resveratrol is well tolerated and no adverse events were reported (Mongioì et al, 2021). Malaxinic acid is a phenolic acid compound identified as the active ingredient responsible for the antiobesity effect of pear extract (Truong et al, 2019). Digallic acid was identified as a major component in the fruit of extract of Phyllanthus emblica by Balusamy et al (2020).…”

“…Pear extract (PE) and its major antioxidant component (malaxinic acid) suppressed macrophage infiltration and inflammation in WAT and decreased the expression levels of the pro‐inflammatory M1 markers TNF‐α, MCP‐1, and Itgax. PE could significantly reverse the hyperactivation of JNK, ERK1/2, and p38 MAPK in WAT of HFD‐fed mice, which are three major MAPKs, suggesting that reduced inflammation by PE are associated with deactivation of the MAPK signaling pathway (Truong et al, 2019).…”