Estudio del cinamaldehído y el eugenol como compuestos potencialmente bioactivos en el control de la obesidad y alteraciones asociadas

Abstract

Introduction. The scientific research seeks new molecules that can be used as functional bimolecular to control obesity and its comorbidities. It has been widely described that clove and cinnamon have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antidiabetic properties. Cinnamaldehyde (CNA) is the major compound of cinnamon and eugenol (EU) is the major compound of clove. Content of the investigation. The first objective has been to characterize the effect of cinnamaldehyde, eugenol and their combination in the expression of key genes involved in lipid metabolism in mature adipocytes. For this, pre-adipocyte cultures of line 3T3-L1 were treated during the whole process of differentiation and in stages of mature adipocytes with different doses of EU, CNA and EU+CNA during 24 h. The results indicate that eugenol and cinnamaldehyde affect the expression of genes involved in lipid metabolism in mature adipocytes of the 3T3-L1 cell line. In particular, the treatment with EU (400 μM) decreases the expression of Fasn and Lipe mRNA and the treatment with CNA (400 μM) decreases the expression of Fasn and increases the expression of Cpt1b compared to the control treatment. The combined treatment EU+CNA has a synergistic effect on the dose-response inhibition of the expression of lipogenic genes (Srebf1, Pparg, Fasn), suggesting an antilipogenic effect. The bioactive compounds eugenol, cinnamaldehyde and its combined treatment affect the expression of key genes involved in lipid metabolism in mature adipocytes, but do not affect the process of differentiation or adipogenesis. The second objective has been to study in adult male Wistar rats, the capacity of cinnamaldehyde and eugenol to counteract the development of obesity in the face of an obesogenic diet. To this aim, we studied in vivo the effect of oral administration of EU, CNA and the combination of both EU+CNA in male Wistar rats fed an obesogenic diet. We distributed the animals in five experimental groups: CONTROL (rats fed a standard diet), WD (rats fed commercial obesogenic diet, (western diet)), WD+EU (rats fed a commercial obesogenic diet and orally 40mg/kg/day of eugenol), WD+CNA (rats fed a commercial obesogenic diet and orally 250mg/kg/day of cinnamaldehyde), WD+EU+CNA (rats fed a commercial obesogenic diet and orally 40+250mg/kg/day of eugenol and cinnamaldehyde, respectively). The treatment lasted for 30 days. The evolution of weight and food intake was daily analyzed. Measurements of body fat were taken at the beginning and end of the study. We analyzed the expression of genes related to lipid metabolism and the size of the adipocytes of the retroperitoneal white adipose tissue. We have observed that the treatment with CNA seems to exert an anorexic effect that could explain the lower weight gain and body fat. In addition, it reduces the size of adipocytes and improves circulating insulin levels. The WD+EU group had a lower bodyweight compared to the WD group. The administration of cinnamaldehyde (250mg/kg/day) prevents the increase in weight and increase in the percentage of fat associated with the intake of the obesogenic diet, in addition, the size of the adipocytes in the white retroperitoneal adipose tissue is smaller. It has been shown that these compounds, particularly the CNA, are effective in counteracting the development of obesity under an obesogenic diet. Conclusion. Therefore, eugenol and cinnamaldehyde emerge as possible bioactive compounds in the control of obesity and associated disorders.