Attenuating effect of Polygala tenuifolia Willd. seed oil on progression of MAFLD

Meiling Xin; Hanlin Wang; Meng Wang; Bendong Yang; Shufei Liang; Xiaoxue Xu; Ling Dong; Tianqi Cai; Yuhong Huang; Qing Wang; Chao Wang; Yuting Cui; Zhengbao Xu; Wenlong Sun; Xinhua Song; Jinyue Sun

doi:10.3389/fphar.2023.1253715

Attenuating effect of Polygala tenuifolia Willd. seed oil on progression of MAFLD

Front Pharmacol. 2023 Oct 6:14:1253715. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1253715. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Meiling Xin^#¹, Hanlin Wang^#¹, Meng Wang^#¹, Bendong Yang¹, Shufei Liang¹, Xiaoxue Xu¹, Ling Dong¹, Tianqi Cai¹, Yuhong Huang², Qing Wang³, Chao Wang¹, Yuting Cui¹, Zhengbao Xu¹, Wenlong Sun^{1

4}, Xinhua Song^{1

4}, Jinyue Sun^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Sciences and Medicine, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, Shandong, China.
² College of Life Sciences, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, Hubei, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Novel Food Resources Processing, Key Laboratory of Agro-Products Processing Technology of Shandong Province, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Agro-Food Science and Technology, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan, China.
⁴ Shandong Qingyujiangxing Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Zibo, Shandong, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Introduction: Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is a common chronic metabolic disease that seriously threatens human health. The pharmacological activity of unsaturated fatty acid-rich vegetable oil interventions in the treatment of MAFLD has been demonstrated. This study evaluated the pharmacological activity of Polygala tenuifolia Willd, which contains high levels of 2-acetyl-1,3-diacyl-sn-glycerols (sn-2-acTAGs). Methods: In this study, a mouse model was established by feeding a high-fat diet (HFD, 31% lard oil diet), and the treatment group was fed a P. tenuifolia seed oil (PWSO) treatment diet (17% lard oil and 14% PWSO diet). The pharmacological activity and mechanism of PWSO were investigated by total cho-lesterol (TC) measurement, triglyceride (TG) measurement and histopathological observation, and the sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1 (SREBP1), SREBP2 and NF-κB signaling pathways were evaluated by immunofluorescence and Western blot analyses. Results: PWSO attenuated the increases in plasma TC and TG levels. Furthermore, PWSO reduced the hepatic levels of TC and TG, ameliorating hepatic lipid accumulation. PWSO treatment effectively improves the level of hepatitic inflammation, such as reducing IL-6 levels and TNF-α level. Discussion: PWSO treatment inactivated SREBP1 and SREBP2, which are involved in lipogenesis, to attenuate hepatic lipid accumulation and mitigate the inflammatory response induced via the NF-κB signaling pathway. This study demonstrated that PWSO can be used as a relatively potent dietary supplement to inhibit the occurrence and development of MAFLD.

Keywords: NF-κB signaling pathway; Polygala tenuifolia Willd.; SREBPs; metabolic-associated fatty liver disease; seed oil.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Taishan Scholar’s Program of Shandong to JS, the University Youth Innovation Team of Shandong Province (2022KJ229), China Post doctoral Science Foundation (2023T160729 and 2023M733918), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2023MH263, ZR2022MH306, and ZR2020QB004), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82104112), the Innovation Ability Improvement Project of Science and Technology SMEs in Shandong Province (2022TSGC2245), Zhangdian School-City Integrated Development Project (2021PT0001).