Thylakoid Supplementation Reduces Body Fat and Fat Cell Size in Rodent Model

by | Feb 18, 2019 | 2017, Alternative Therapies, Obesity

Written by Angeline A. De Leon, Staff Writer. Mice on a high fat diet with added thylakoids significantly decreased their food intake, fat mass, and liver fat accumulation and significantly increased fecal fat excretion compared to those on a high fat diet without added thylakoids.

From industrialized societies to developing countries, obesity represents a severe global health crisis, one requiring urgent measures. Excessive intake of dietary fat, relative to protein and carbohydrates, is known to significantly contribute to obesity 1. Anti-obesity interventions, therefore, have focused on weight loss through decreased fat intake or decreased gastrointestinal absorption of fat (i.e., lipase inhibitors) 2. Thylakoids are membrane-enclosed photosynthetic pouches found within the chloroplasts of green leaves, and emerging research has shown that these biological membranes are associated with beneficial effects on body fat accumulation and blood lipids 3. By binding to lipids and delaying fat digestion, thylakoids support appetite regulation 4, and in rodent models of obesity, supplementation with thylakoids in the context of a high-fat diet has been found to reduce body weight, fat mass, and food intake 5,6. Although the exact mechanism underlying the fat mass reduction capabilities of thylakoids is still under review, researchers speculate that increased fatty acid oxidation in intestinal cells may be involved, possibly in the form of fecal fat excretion or through recruitment of new more metabolically active adipocytes (specialized cells for the storage of fat) 7. In a 2017 study 8 published in Nutrition and Metabolism, researchers from Lund University in Sweden used an animal model to examine the processes by which thylakoid supplementation causes fat mass reduction of adipose cells, looking specifically at whether fecal fat excretion played a role.

A group of one-week-old male mice were randomly assigned to either a high-fat diet (HFD, 46% of energy from fat, 18% from protein, and 36% from carbohydrates) (n = 14) or a thylakoid-enriched high-fat diet (thylHFD, prepared from spinach leaves and containing 33% w/w thylakoid extract) (n = 16) for two weeks. Body weight was measured at baseline, day 7, and day 14. Fecal samples were collected during the final 8 days of treatment and then analyzed for fat content. At the end of the study, mice were euthanized and liver and body fat tissue were dissected to determine body fat composition, adipose cell-size distribution, and adipose tissue metabolism.

After two weeks, mice on the thylHFD diet demonstrated reduced caloric intake, relative to HFD mice (p < 0.05), as well as reduced fat mass by 33%, compared to HFD-fed mice (p < 0.01). More specifically, thylakoid-treated mice showed reduced fat mass in various locations (epididymal fat, mescenteric fat, retroperitoneal fat, inguinal fat, and brown adipose tissue; all p < 0.0001), relative to the HFD group. Total lipid content in feces (mg/day) was also significantly elevated in thylHFD vs. HFD (22.73 vs. 9.60 mg/day, p < 0.001), and livers from thylHFD mice showed lower triglyceride (TGA) accumulation compared to HFD mice (p < 0.001). In addition, lipogenesis (metabolic formation of fat, measured through incorporation of tracer glucose into TGAs) was found to be increased in isolated mescenteric (p < 0.05) and epididymal (p < 0.01) fat cells of thylHFD mice, compared to HFD mice. Finally, in thylakoid treated mice, relative to HFD, fat cell size distribution was found to be more narrowed (range of 30-100 µm vs. 50-150 µm in diameter of larger adipocytes), with a decreased mean cell size (~83 µm vs. 90 µm).

Data from the present study show that thylakoid supplementation can reduce body fat accumulation and lower fat cell size in mice on a high-fat diet. ThylHFD mice exhibited less fat accumulation in the liver, as well as decreased adipose cell size distribution. The weight reduction and body fat loss observed in thylHFD mice are thought to be a result of the increased fecal fat excretion evident in thylakoid-fed mice, a novel finding of the study, suggesting reduced fat absorption in the body. Altogether, results of the study indicate a potential therapeutic role of green-plant thylakoids in supporting cardiometabolic health, pointing to the protective effects of thylakoid supplementation against body fat accumulation. The present study could have benefited from a longer observation period, which would have better allowed investigators to determine if and when the fat-loss effects of thylakoid treatment would have stabilized. Replication of findings in human subjects is warranted, and it would also be valuable to examine the impact of thylakoid supplementation on insulin sensitivity.

Source: Stenkula KG, Stenblom E, Montelius C, et al. Thylakoids reduce body fat and fat cell size by binding to dietary fat making it less available for absorption in high-fat fed mice. Nutrition and Metabolism. 2017; 14: 4. DOI: 10.1186/s1286-016-0160-4.

© The Author(s). 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
(http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

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Posted February 18, 2019.

Angeline A. De Leon, MA, graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2010, completing a bachelor’s degree in psychology, with a concentration in neuroscience. She received her master’s degree from The Ohio State University in 2013, where she studied clinical neuroscience within an integrative health program. Her specialized area of research involves the complementary use of neuroimaging and neuropsychology-based methodologies to examine how lifestyle factors, such as physical activity and meditation, can influence brain plasticity and enhance overall connectivity.
  

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