Bofutsushosan ameliorates obesity in mice through modulating PGC-1α expression in brown adipose tissues and inhibiting inflammation in white adipose tissues

• Published in: Chinese journal of natural medicines 2016-06, Vol.14 (6), p.449-456
• Main Authors: CHEN, Ying-Ying, YAN, Yan, ZHAO, Zheng, SHI, Mei-Jing, ZHANG, Yu-Bin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adipose Tissue, Brown - drug effects; Adipose Tissue, Brown - immunology; Adipose Tissue, White - drug effects; Adipose Tissue, White - immunology; Animals; Bofutsushosan; Cytokines - genetics; Cytokines - metabolism; Drugs, Chinese Herbal - administration & dosage; Energy Metabolism - drug effects; Female; Humans; Inflammation; Interleukin-6 - genetics; Interleukin-6 - immunology; Mice; Obesity; Obesity - drug therapy; Obesity - genetics; Obesity - immunology; Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma Coactivator 1-alpha - genetics; Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma Coactivator 1-alpha - immunology; PGC-1α; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha - genetics; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha - immunology; UCP1; Uncoupling Protein 1 - genetics; Uncoupling Protein 1 - metabolism
• ISSN: 1875-5364; 1875-5364
• DOI: 10.1016/S1875-5364(16)30042-5

The inducible co-activator PGC-1α plays a crucial role in adaptive thermogenesis and increases energy expenditure in brown adipose tissue (BAT). Meanwhile, chronic inflammation caused by infiltrated-macrophage in the white adipose tissue (WAT) is a target for the treatment of obesity. Bofutsushosan (BF), a traditional Chinese medicine composed of 17 crude drugs, has been widely used to treat obesity in China, Japan, and other Asia countries. However, the mechanism underlying anti-obesity remains to be elucidated. In the present study, we demonstrated that BF oral administration reduced the body weight of obese mice induced by high-fat diet (HFD) and alleviated the level of biochemical markers (P < 0.05), including blood glucose (Glu), total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL-C) and insulin. Our further results also indicated that oral BF administration increased the expression of PGC-1α and UCP1 in BAT. Moreover, BF also reduced the expression of inflammatory cytokines in WAT, such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). These findings suggested that the mechanism of BF against obesity was at least partially through increasing gene expression of PGC-1α and UCP1 for energy consumption in BAT and inhibiting inflammation in WAT.