Arachidonic acid sex-dependently affects obesity through linking gut microbiota-driven inflammation to hypothalamus-adipose-liver axis

Publication date: November 2017 Source:Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Molecular Basis of Disease, Volume 1863, Issue 11 Author(s): Pan Zhuang, Qiyang Shou, Yanhua Lu, Guangfa Wang, Jieni Qiu, Jun Wang, Lilin He, Jingnan Chen, Jingjing Jiao, Yu Zhang Unraveling the role of dietary lipids is beneficial to treat obesity and metabolic dysfunction. Nonetheless, how dietary lipids affect existing obesity remains unknown. Arachidonic acid (AA), a derivative of linoleic acid, is one of the crucial n-6 fatty acids. The aim of this study was to investigate whether AA affects obesity through associating microbiota-driven inflammation with hypothalamus-adipose-liver axis. Four-week old C57BL/6J mice were fed with a high-fat diet (HFD, 45% fat) for 10weeks to induce obesity, and then fed a HFD enriched with 10g/kg of AA or a continuous HFD in the following 15weeks. Systemic adiposity and inflammation, metabolic profiles, gut microbiota composition, short-chain fatty acids production, hypothalamic feeding regulators, browning process of adipocytes, hepatosteatosis, and insulin resistance in adipose were investigated. The results indicated that AA aggravates obesity for both genders whereas sex-dependently affects gut microbiota composition. Also, AA favors pro-inflammatory microbiota and reduces butyrate production and circulating serotonin, which augments global inflammation and triggers hypothalamic leptin resistance via microglia accumulation in male. AA exacerbates n...
Source: Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) Molecular Basis of Disease - Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research