Effects of long-term feeding of the polyphenols resveratrol and kaempferol in obese mice

PLoS One. 2014 Nov 11;9(11):e112825. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0112825. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

The effect of the intake of antioxidant polyphenols such as resveratrol and others on survival and different parameters of life quality has been a matter of debate in the last years. We have studied here the effects of the polyphenols resveratrol and kaempferol added to the diet in a murine model undergoing long-term hypercaloric diet. Using 50 mice for each condition, we have monitored weight, survival, biochemical parameters such as blood glucose, insulin, cholesterol, triglycerides and aspartate aminotransferase, neuromuscular coordination measured with the rotarod test and morphological aspect of stained sections of liver and heart histological samples. Our data show that mice fed since they are 3-months-old with hypercaloric diet supplemented with any of these polyphenols reduced their weight by about 5-7% with respect to the controls fed only with hypercaloric diet. We also observed that mice fed with any of the polyphenols had reduced levels of glucose, insulin and cholesterol, and better marks in the rotarod test, but only after 1 year of treatment, that is, during senescence. No effect was observed in the rest of the parameters studied. Furthermore, although treatment with hypercaloric diets induced large changes in the pattern of gene expression in liver, we found no significant changes in gene expression induced by the presence of any of the polyphenols. Thus, our data indicate that addition of resveratrol or kaempferol to mice food produces an initial decrease in weight in mice subjected to hypercaloric diet, but beneficial effects in other parameters such as blood glucose, insulin and cholesterol, and neuromuscular coordination, only appear after prolonged treatments.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alanine Transaminase / blood
  • Animals
  • Blood Glucose / metabolism
  • Body Weight / drug effects
  • Cholesterol / blood
  • Gene Expression Regulation / drug effects
  • Insulin / blood
  • Kaempferols / pharmacology*
  • Liver / drug effects
  • Liver / metabolism
  • Male
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Obesity / drug therapy*
  • Obesity / genetics
  • Obesity / metabolism
  • Resveratrol
  • Rotarod Performance Test
  • Stilbenes / pharmacology*
  • Survival Rate
  • Triglycerides / blood

Substances

  • Blood Glucose
  • Insulin
  • Kaempferols
  • Stilbenes
  • Triglycerides
  • kaempferol
  • Cholesterol
  • Alanine Transaminase
  • Resveratrol

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación [BFU2008-01871 and BFU 2011-25763; (http://www.idi.mineco.gob.es/portal/site/MICINN/)] and from Junta de Castilla y León [VA029A12-1 and GR105, (http://www.educa.jcyl.es/educacyl/cm/universidad)]. Sergio de la Fuente had an FPI (Formación de Personal Investigador) fellowship from the Spanish Government. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.