Zebrafish obesogenic test identifies anti‐adipogenic fraction in Moringa oreifera leaf extracts

• Published in: Food science & nutrition Vol. 10; no. 4; pp. 1248 - 1256
• Main Authors: Matsuoka, Izumi, Hata, Kanae, Katsuzaki, Hirotaka, Nakayama, Hiroko, Zang, Liqing, Ota, Mizuho, Kim, Youngil, Chu, Djong‐Chi, Juneja, Lekh Raj, Nishimura, Norihiro, Shimada, Yasuhito
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.04.2022; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Accumulation; Adipocytes; Adipogenesis; Adipose tissue; Body fat; Danio rerio; diabetes; Dichloromethane; dyslipidemia; Gene expression; herbal medicine; Hexanes; High fat diet; Hypertension; In vivo methods and tests; Leaves; Lipids; Metabolic disorders; Natural products; Obesity; Original; Original Research; Phenotypes; Plant extracts; Proteins; Screening; visceral obesity; Weight control; Zebrafish; United States > US; natural products; visceral obesity; dyslipidemia; diabetes; herbal medicine
• ISSN: 2048-7177; 2048-7177
• DOI: 10.1002/fsn3.2758

The zebrafish obesogenic test (ZOT) is a powerful tool for identifying anti‐adipogenic compounds for in vivo screening. In our previous study, we found that Moringa oleifera (MO) leaf powder suppressed the accumulation of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) in ZOT. MO demonstrates a wide range of pharmacological effects; however, little is known about its functional constituents. To identify the anti‐adipogenic components of MO leaves, we prepared extracts using different extraction methods and tested the obtained extracts and fractions using ZOT. We found that the dichloromethane extract and its hexane:EtOAc = 8:2 fraction reduced VAT accumulation in young zebrafish fed a high‐fat diet. We also performed gene expression analysis in the zebrafish VAT and found that CCAAT/enhancer‐binding protein beta and CCAAT/enhancer‐binding protein delta (associated with early stages of adipogenesis) gene expression was downregulated after fraction 2 administration. We identified a new MO fraction that suppressed VAT accumulation by inhibiting early adipogenesis using the ZOT. Phenotype‐driven zebrafish screening is a reasonable strategy for identifying bioactive components in natural products. We performed zebrafish obesogenic test to identify anti‐adipogenic fraction in Moringa oleifera leaf. Phenotype‐driven zebrafish screening can be a reasonable strategy for identifying bioactive components in natural products. Using zebrafish obesogenic test, we identified that the dichloromethane extract of Moringa oleifera leaf and its subfraction (Fr. 2) reduced VAT accumulation in young zebrafish. In the zebrafish VAT, expression of early adipogenesis markers, cebpb and cebpd, was significantly (p < .05) decreased by Fr. 2, as was the expression of the late differentiation marker cebpa. We also confirmed that the subfractions of Fr. 2 also suppressed adipogenesis in ZOT and mouse 3T3‐L1 preadipocytes.