Although conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) has attracted attention as a potent body fat-reducing agent, its detailed molecular mechanism of action remains obscure. Here, we evaluated the effect of short-term feeding of CLA on metabolism in adipose tissue of mice fed a high-fat diet. Mice were fed a high-fat diet for 8-wk to promote the accumulation of body fat, then divided into control and 1 % CLA groups and kept for 1-wk. CLA did not affect the weight of epididymal and perirenal adipose tissues. To detect the metabolic changes that precede the body fat-reducing effect of CLA, a comprehensive metabolite analysis in adipose tissue was performed using a capillary electrophoresis quadrupole time-of-flight system. Principal component analysis clearly showed differentiation in the pattern of quantitative data for metabolites between control and CLA groups. KEGG enrichment analysis of metabolites indicated the importance of three metabolite sets. Seventeen metabolites were significantly upregulated in the CLA group compared to the control and no metabolites were downregulated. Taken together, these changes in metabolite profile induced by CLA are indicative of early onset metabolic change, potentially leading to a reduction in adipose tissue mass.
Nanase et al. (Thu,) studied this question.