Antiadipogenic Effects of açai Polyphenols on High Fat Diet-fed Mice and 3T3-L1 Adipocytes: A Potential Mechanism of Action (OR34-04-19).

Body adiposity is an important risk factor for the development of chronic non-communicable diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of açai seed extract (ASE) on adipogenesis. We investigated the effects of ASE in a mouse model of high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity. We also evaluated the effects of ASE as a pre-treatment and treatment on 3T3-L1 adipocytes cell proliferation, cell differentiation and expression of proteins involved in lipid metabolism, such as PPARɣ, SREBP-1 and FAS, using westernbloting. In our work high-fat diet–fed mice treated with ASE (HFD-ASE) showed a lower adipose index (–32.63%, p < 0.001) than the high-fat diet–fed mice group (HFD) and the adipocytes from the HFD group were considerably enlarged (p < 0.001) compared to those in the control group (CG) and HFD-ASE group (+175% and +123%, respectively). We also evaluated the effects of ASE on the modulation of adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 cells. ASE exposure led to a decrease of 26.6 (P < 0.05) in proliferation and also inhibited preadipocyte differentiation through the decreasing expression (P < 0.05) of transcription factors and adipogenic proteins such as PPARɣ, SREBP-1 and FAS. These results show that the ASE reduce adipogenesis and suppress lipid accumulation in in vivo model and in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and reinforce the potential ASE as a potential strategy to modulate adipogenesis. The financial support of Brazilian funding agencies: FAPERJ, E-26/202.829/2015 and E-26/010.002632/2014; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, 472711/2013-0; and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pesssoal de Nível Superior-Brazil (CAPES) – Finance code 001.