Antiadipogenic effects of acai seed extract on high fat diet-fed mice and 3T3-L1 adipocytes: A potential mechanism of action

Body adiposity is an important risk factor for the development of chronic non-transmissible diseases. Studies on the process of adipogenesis have been extensively performed in vivo and in vitro models to describe the molecular and cellular bases of adipose tissue development and the effect of natural products in this process. The acai seed extract (ASE) has been evidenced as a potential regulator of body mass. In our work high-fat diet-fed mice treated with ASE (300 mg/Kg/d) (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 (25 and 100 mu g/mL) led to a decrease of 26.6 (p < 0.05) in proliferation and also inhibited pre-adipocyte differentiation through the decreasing expression (p < 0.05) of transcription factors and adipogenic proteins such as PPAR gamma, SREBP-1, and FAS. These results show that the ASE reduce adipogenesis and suppress lipid accumulation in the in vivo model and in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and reinforce ASE as a potential strategy to modulate adipogenesis.