Theabrownin and Poria cocos Polysaccharide Improve Lipid Metabolism via Modulation of Bile Acid and Fatty Acid Metabolism

Figures

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  FIGURE 1. The phenotypes of the mice in CD, HFD, HFD + TB, HFD + PCP, and HFD + TB + PCP groups. (A) The body weights across 12-weeks treatment. (B) The weights of liver, epididymal adipose tissue (EAT), perirenal adipose tissue (KAT), and subcutaneous inguinal white adipose tissue (iWAT). (C) The levels of serum lipids (TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C) and inflammatory factors. (D) The hepatic TG and TC levels and inflammatory factors. (E) The blood glucose levels of ITT (baseline, and 15, 30, 60, 120 min after insulin loading). (F) The blood glucose levels of OGTT (baseline, and 15, 30, 60, 120 min after insulin loading) and the AUC of OGTT. (G) Representative images of liver HE staining. Scale bars, 50 μm. 100× magnification. Data were expressed as mean ± SEM. Differences between groups (all groups compared to the HFD group) were assessed using the one-way ANOVA test; *p < 0.05 compared with the HFD group. Differences between groups (HFD + TB and HFD + PCP compared to the HFD + TB + PCP group) were assessed using the one-way ANOVA test; # < 0.05 compared with the HFD + TB + PCP group.

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  FIGURE 2. (A) Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) for CD, HFD, HFD + TB, HFD + PCP, and HFD + TB + PCP groups. (B) The heatmaps of serum metabolites in the five groups. The z-score reflects the number of standard deviations from the mean for each metabolite. (C) Network integrating phenotype–metabolite correlations. Phenotypes are shown in yellow and significant correlative metabolites are shown in gray. Red and blue lines represent positive and negative correlations, respectively. The thickness of the line represented the strength of the correlation.

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  FIGURE 3. (A) Bubble chart of potential signaling pathways. Pathway analysis was performed in the KEGG database. The color and size of each bubble represent the impact of metabolites in each pathway and p value, respectively. (B) Volcano plot for the differential metabolites (HFD + TB group vs. HFD group). Metabolites with statistically differential levels lie above the horizontal threshold line. Metabolites with large fold change values lie far from the vertical threshold line at log2-fold change = 0, indicating whether the metabolite is up or downregulated. (C) The concentrations of differential serum metabolites. (D) The mRNA expression of hepatic BA synthetic genes. (E) The mRNA expression of hepatic fatty acid metabolism-related genes. (F) The mRNA expression of intestinal peristalsis-related genes. n = 8 individuals/group. Data were expressed as mean ± SEM. Differences between data were assessed by the Mann–Whitney U test; *p < 0.05 compared with the HFD group.

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  FIGURE 4. (A) Bubble chart of potential signaling pathways. Pathway analysis was performed in the KEGG database. The color and size of each bubble represent the impact of metabolites in each pathway and p value, respectively. (B) Volcano plot for the differential metabolites (HFD + PCP group vs. HFD group). Metabolites with statistically significant differential levels lie above a horizontal threshold line. Metabolites with large fold change values lie far from the vertical threshold line at log2-fold change = 0, indicating whether the metabolite is up or downregulated. (C) The concentration of differential serum metabolites. (D) The mRNA expression of hepatic lipid transportation-related genes. (E) The mRNA expression of TCA cycle-related genes. n = 8 individuals/group. Data were expressed as mean ± SEM. Differences between data were assessed by the Mann–Whitney U test; *p < 0.05 compared with the HFD group.

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  FIGURE 5. (A) Bubble chart of potential signaling pathways. Pathway analysis was performed in the KEGG database. The color and size of each bubble represent the impact of metabolites in each pathway and p value, respectively. (B) Volcano plot for the differential metabolites (HFD + TB + PCP group vs. HFD group). Metabolites with statistically significant differential levels lie above a horizontal threshold line. Metabolites with large fold change values lie far from the vertical threshold line at log2-fold change = 0, indicating whether the metabolite is up or downregulated. (C) The concentration of differential serum metabolites. (D) The mRNA expression of hepatic BA synthetic genes. (E) The mRNA expression of fatty acid metabolism-related genes. (F) The mRNA expression of hepatic lipid transportation genes. (G) mRNA expression of TCA cycle-related genes. (H) The mRNA expression of intestinal peristalsis-related genes. n = 8 individuals/group. Data were expressed as mean ± SEM. Differences between data were assessed by the Mann–Whitney U test; *p < 0.05 compared with the HFD group.

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  FIGURE 6. The proposed mechanisms of theabrownin and P. cocos polysaccharide on the NAFLD alleviation.