Developing effective and safe lipid-lowering drugs is highly urgent. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness and underlying mechanisms of Gynostemma pentaphyllum (GP) in the treatment of hyperlipidemia. First, a meta-analysis was performed to determine the lipid-lowering effects of GP. Thereafter, hyperlipidemia was induced in mice using a high-fat diet (HFD) and was subsequently treated with Gynostemma pentaphyllum extract (GPE) by daily gavage for 12 weeks. The body weight, tissue weight, blood lipid level, and liver lipid level were determined. Additionally, mouse serum samples were subjected to metabolomic profiling and feces were collected at different time points for metagenomic analysis via 16S rDNA sequencing. A total of 15 out of 1520 studies were retrieved from six databases. The pooled results of the meta-analysis showed that GP effectively reduced triglyceride levels and increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (both [Formula: see text]). Animal experiments revealed that GPE administration significantly reduced body weight, ameliorated high blood lipid levels, limited lipid deposition, and improved insulin resistance. Furthermore, GPE treatment markedly changed the intestinal microbiota structure and constitution of tryptophan metabolites. In conclusion, our results confirm the lipid-lowering effect of GP, which may be partly attributable to regulation of the intestinal microbiota and tryptophan metabolism.
Keywords: Gynostemma pentaphyllum; Hyperlipidemia; Intestinal Microbiota; Lipid Metabolism.