TRPA1 Agonist Cinnamaldehyde Decreases Adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 Cells More Potently than the Non-agonist Structural Analog Cinnamyl Isobutyrate

Julia K Hoi; Barbara Lieder; Beatrix Liebisch; Christiane Czech; Joachim Hans; Jakob P Ley; Veronika Somoza

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c05083

TRPA1 Agonist Cinnamaldehyde Decreases Adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 Cells More Potently than the Non-agonist Structural Analog Cinnamyl Isobutyrate

ACS Omega. 2020 Dec 15;5(51):33305-33313. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c05083. eCollection 2020 Dec 29.

Authors

Julia K Hoi¹, Barbara Lieder¹, Beatrix Liebisch¹, Christiane Czech¹, Joachim Hans², Jakob P Ley², Veronika Somoza³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physiological Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Vienna, Althanstraße 14, 1300 Vienna, Austria.
² Symrise AG, Muehlenfeldstraße 1, 37603 Holzminden, Germany.
³ Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich, Chair of Nutritional Systems Biology, Technical University of Munich, Lise-Meitner-Strasse 34, 85345 Freising, Germany.

Abstract

The cinnamon-derived bioactive aroma compound cinnamaldehyde (CAL) has been identified as a promising antiobesity agent, inhibiting adipogenesis and decreasing lipid accumulation in vitro as well as in animal models. Here, we investigated the antiadipogenic effect of cinnamyl isobutyrate (CIB), another cinnamon-derived aroma compound, in comparison to CAL in 3T3-L1 adipocyte cells. In a concentration of 30 μM, CIB reduced triglyceride (TG) and phospholipid (PL) accumulation in 3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes by 21.4 ± 2.56 and 20.7 ± 2.05%, respectively. CAL (30 μM), in comparison, decreased TG accumulation by 37.5 ± 1.81% and PL accumulation by 28.7 ± 1.83%, revealing the aldehyde to be the more potent antiadipogenic compound. The CIB- and CAL-mediated inhibition of lipid accumulation was accompanied by downregulation of essential adipogenic transcription factors PPARγ, C/EBPα, and C/EBPβ on gene and protein levels, pointing to a compound-modulated effect on adipogenic signaling cascades. Coincubation experiments applying the TRPA-1 inhibitor AP-18 demonstrated TRPA1 dependency of the CAL, but not the CIB-induced antiadipogenic effect.