Anti-adipogenic activity of the edible brown alga Ecklonia stolonifera and its constituent fucosterol in 3T3-L1 adipocytes

• Published in: Archives of pharmacal research Vol. 37; no. 6; pp. 713 - 720
• Main Authors: Jung, Hyun Ah, Jung, Hee Jin, Jeong, Hyun Young, Kwon, Hyun Ju, Kim, Min-Sun, Choi, Jae Sue
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Pharmaceutical Society of Korea 01.06.2014; 대한약학회
• Subjects: 3T3-L1 Cells - drug effects; 3T3-L1 Cells - physiology; adipocytes; Adipocytes - drug effects; Adipocytes - physiology; Adipogenesis - drug effects; Adipogenesis - physiology; Animals; Anti-Obesity Agents - chemistry; Anti-Obesity Agents - isolation & purification; Anti-Obesity Agents - pharmacology; Cell Survival - drug effects; Cell Survival - physiology; cholesterol; chromatography; cytotoxicity; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Ecklonia; ethyl acetate; genes; homeostasis; Medicine; metabolites; methylene chloride; Mice; Phaeophyceae; Pharmacology/Toxicology; Pharmacy; proteins; Research Article; solvents; Stigmasterol - analogs & derivatives; Stigmasterol - chemistry; Stigmasterol - isolation & purification; Stigmasterol - pharmacology; triacylglycerols; 약학; 3T3-L1 cells; C/EBPα; Adipocyte differentiation; Fucosterol; PPAR γ
• ISSN: 0253-6269; 1976-3786; 1976-3786
• DOI: 10.1007/s12272-013-0237-9

Fucosterol is a sterol metabolite of brown algae and regulates genes involved with cholesterol homeostasis. As a part of our continuous search for anti-obesity agents from natural marine sources, the anti-adipogenic activities of Ecklonia stolonifera and its sterol, fucosterol, were evaluated for the inhibition of adipocyte differentiation and lipid formation. Oil Red O staining was used to evaluate triglyceride contents in 3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes primed by differentiation medium (DM) I and DM II. The methanolic extract of E. stolonifera showed strong anti-adipogenic activity, and was thus fractionated with several solvents. Among the tested fractions, the dichloromethane (CH 2 Cl 2 ) fraction was found to be the most active fraction, with significant inhibition (40.5 %) of intracellular lipid accumulation at a non-toxic concentration, followed by the ethyl acetate fraction (30.2 %) at the same concentration, while the n -butanol and water fractions did not show inhibitory activity within the tested concentrations. The strong anti-adipogenic CH 2 Cl 2 -soluble fraction was further purified by a repeated chromatography to yield fucosterol. Fucosterol reduced lipid contents in a concentration-dependent manner without showing any cytotoxicity. Fucosterol treatment also yielded a decrease in the expression of the adipocyte marker proteins peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein α (C/EBPα) in a concentration-dependent manner. Taken together, these results suggest that fucosterol inhibits expression of PPARγ and C/EBPα, resulting in a decrease of lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes, indicating that the potential use of E. stolonifera and its bioactive fucosterol as an anti-obesity agent.