Quercetin Ameliorates Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis That Drives Hypothalamic Damage and Hepatic Lipogenesis in Monosodium Glutamate-Induced Abdominal Obesity

Lijun Zhao; Xiaoqiang Zhu; Mengxuan Xia; Jing Li; An-Yuan Guo; Yanhong Zhu; Xiangliang Yang

doi:10.3389/fnut.2021.671353

Quercetin Ameliorates Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis That Drives Hypothalamic Damage and Hepatic Lipogenesis in Monosodium Glutamate-Induced Abdominal Obesity

Front Nutr. 2021 Apr 29:8:671353. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2021.671353. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Lijun Zhao¹, Xiaoqiang Zhu¹, Mengxuan Xia², Jing Li¹, An-Yuan Guo², Yanhong Zhu¹, Xiangliang Yang¹

Affiliations

¹ National Engineering Research Center for Nanomedicine, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
² Key Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics of the Ministry of Education, Department of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.

Abstract

Monosodium glutamate (MSG)-induced abdominal obesity, conventionally caused by hypothalamic damage, is a critical risk factor for health problem. Microbiota-gut-brain axis plays important roles in a variety of metabolic diseases. However, whether gut microbiota is involved in the pathogenesis for MSG-induced abdominal obesity and the effect of quercetin on it remains unclear. Herein, we find that MSG-induced gut microbiota dysbiosis contributes to neuronal damage in the hypothalamus, as indicated by antibiotics-induced microbiota depletion and co-house treatment. Inspired by this finding, we investigate the mechanism in-depth for MSG-induced abdominal obesity. Liver transcriptome profiling shows retinol metabolism disorder in MSG-induced abdominal obese mice. In which, retinol saturase (RetSat) in the liver is notably up-regulated, and the downstream lipogenesis is correspondingly elevated. Importantly, microbiota depletion or co-house treatment eliminates the difference of RetSat expression in the liver, indicating gut microbiota changes are responsible for liver retinol metabolism disorder. Moreover, this study finds dietary quercetin could modulate MSG-induced gut microbiota dysbiosis, alleviate hypothalamic damage and down-regulate liver RetSat expression, thus ameliorating abdominal obesity. Our study enriches the pathogenesis of MSG-induced abdominal obesity and provides a prebiotic agent to ameliorate abdominal obesity.

Keywords: abdominal obesity; dietary quercetin; gut microbiota; hypothalamic damage; retinol saturase.