Obesity is a serious public health issue in developed countries, and is known to increase the risk of several diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular events and arteriosclerosis. These phenomena are closely correlated with oxidative damage. Recently, several lines of evidence have demonstrated that neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's are also related to oxidative damage. To clarify the relationship between obesity and oxidative brain injury, we investigated brain antioxidant networks in high-fat (HF) diet-treated mice in the presence or absence of tocotrienols (T3s) and bran. Co-treatment with T3s and bran significantly inhibited bodyweight gain in HF diet-treated mice. Serum and cortex T3 levels, and brain antioxidant enzyme activities and protein expressions did not differ among the groups except for SOD protein expression in the cerebellum. Brain p-mTOR and p-Akt protein expressions, which are related to autophagy, did not differ among the groups. These results indicate that treatment with T3s for eight weeks had showed an anti-obesity effect in HF diet-treated mice. However, significant alterations in T3 levels were not observed in the serum and brain of mice.
Keywords: anti-obesity; bran; high-fat; oxidative stress; tocotrienols.