Feeding soy protein concentrates with low or high isoflavone decreases liver inflammation by reducing lipopolysaccharide translocation

Wei Li; Reza Hakkak

doi:10.3389/fnut.2023.1278158

Feeding soy protein concentrates with low or high isoflavone decreases liver inflammation by reducing lipopolysaccharide translocation

Front Nutr. 2023 Nov 20:10:1278158. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1278158. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Wei Li¹, Reza Hakkak^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Dietetics and Nutrition, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, United States.
² Arkansas Children's Research Institute, Little Rock, AR, United States.
³ Department of Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, United States.

Abstract

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) translocation and inflammation contribute to the increased risk of chronic diseases, including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), associated with obesity. Previously, we reported that feeding soy protein with high or low (negligible) isoflavone reduces liver steatosis in obese Zucker rats, and the reduced steatosis is accompanied by decreased serum C-reactive protein levels. The current study investigated the effect of feeding soy protein concentrate (SPC) with high or low isoflavone (HIF or LIF) on liver inflammation and LPS translocation in obese Zucker rats. Six-week-old male lean (L, n = 21) and obese (O, n = 21) Zucker rats were fed casein control, SPC-LIF, or SPC-HIF diets for 18 weeks. At the end of 18 weeks, the expression levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), arginase 1 (ARG1), lipopolysaccharide binding protein (LBP), myeloperoxidase (MPO), and sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBP-1) were significantly higher in obese rats compared to lean rats. Compared to the casein control diet, both the SPC-LIF and SPC-HIF diets significantly decreased TNF-α, MCP-1, iNOS, and LBP expression in obese rats, which is accompanied by significantly less LPS staining in liver slides from SPC-LIF-and SPC-HIF-fed obese rats compared to the casein control diet-fed obese rats. Taken together, the SPC-LIF and SPC-HIF diets attenuated liver inflammation in obese Zucker rats, likely by decreasing LPS translocation.

Keywords: LPS translocation; Zucker rats; inflammation; isoflavone; liver; obesity; soy protein concentrate.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This project was supported by USDA grant number 2020-67017-30841 to RH and a UAMS College of Health Professions seed grant to WL.