Betaine improves appetite regulation and glucose-lipid metabolism in mandarin fish (Siniperca chuatsi) fed a high-carbohydrate-diet by regulating the AMPK/mTOR signaling

Hongyan Li; Yanzhi Zeng; Guangjun Wang; Kai Zhang; Wangbao Gong; Zhifei Li; Jingjing Tian; Yun Xia; Wenping Xie; Jun Xie; Shouqi Xie; Ermeng Yu

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e28423

Betaine improves appetite regulation and glucose-lipid metabolism in mandarin fish (Siniperca chuatsi) fed a high-carbohydrate-diet by regulating the AMPK/mTOR signaling

Heliyon. 2024 Mar 30;10(7):e28423. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e28423. eCollection 2024 Apr 15.

Authors

Hongyan Li^{1

2

3}, Yanzhi Zeng^{1

4}, Guangjun Wang¹, Kai Zhang¹, Wangbao Gong¹, Zhifei Li¹, Jingjing Tian¹, Yun Xia¹, Wenping Xie¹, Jun Xie¹, Shouqi Xie², Ermeng Yu¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Tropical & Subtropical Fishery Resource Application & Cultivation, Pearl River Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Guangzhou, 510380, China.
² Key Laboratory of Breeding Biotechnology and Sustainable Aquaculture, CAS, China.
³ Fujian Province Key Laboratory of Special Aquatic Formula Feed (Fujian Tianma Science and Technology Group Co., Ltd.), Fuqing, 350308, China.
⁴ National Demonstration Center for Experimental Fisheries Science Education, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, 201306, China.

Abstract

Diets with high carbohydrate (HC) was reported to have influence on appetite and intermediary metabolism in fish. To illustrate whether betaine could improve appetite and glucose-lipid metabolism in aquatic animals, mandarin fish (Siniperca chuatsi) were fed with the HC diets with or without betaine for 8 weeks. The results suggested that betaine enhanced feed intake by regulating the hypothalamic appetite genes. The HC diet-induced downregulation of AMPK and appetite genes was also positively correlated with the decreased autophagy genes, suggesting a possible mechanism that AMPK/mTOR signaling might regulate appetite through autophagy. The HC diet remarkably elevated transcriptional levels of genes related to lipogenesis, while betaine alleviated the HC-induced hepatic lipid deposition. Additionally, betaine supplementation tended to store the energy storage as hepatic glycogen. Our findings proposed the possible mechanism for appetite regulation through autophagy via AMPK/mTOR, and demonstrated the feasibility of betaine as an aquafeed additive to regulate appetite and intermediary metabolism in fish.

Keywords: AMPK/mTOR; Appetite regulation; Betaine; Glucose-lipid metabolism; Mandarin fish.