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Research Project: Prevention of Obesity Related Metabolic Diseases by Bioactive Components of Food Processing Waste Byproducts and Mitigation of Food Allergies

Location: Healthy Processed Foods Research

Title: Quercetin ameliorates insulin resistance and restores gut microbiome in mice on high fat diets

Author
item TAN, YUQING - Chinese Agricultural University
item Tam, Christina
item ROLSTON, MATT - University Of California, Davis
item ALVES, PRISCILA - Former ARS Employee
item CHEN, LING - Jiangnan University
item MENG, SHI - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item HONG, HUI - China Agricultural University
item CHANG, SAM - Mississippi State University
item Yokoyama, Wallace - Wally

Submitted to: Antioxidants
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/3/2021
Publication Date: 8/5/2021
Citation: Tan, Y., Tam, C.C., Rolston, M., Alves, P., Chen, L., Meng, S., Hong, H., Chang, S.K., Yokoyama, W.H. 2021. Quercetin ameliorates insulin resistance and restores gut microbiome in mice on high fat diets. Antioxidants. 10(8). Article 1251. https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox10081251.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox10081251

Interpretive Summary: Quercetin is an antioxidant compound found in most plant foods and is considered one of the most abundant antioxidant in plant foods. Previous research had shown that quercetin prevents metabolic dysfunction and obesity in animal models of obesity. In this study we show that blood markers for diabetes such as insulin, leptin and others are associated with insulin resistance, a condition that occurs before diabetes, in mice on high fat diets.

Technical Abstract: Diabetes related biomarkers in blood were determined in insulin resistant mice fed high fat (HF) diets (46% fat calories)supplemented with quercetin. Male C57BL/6J mice were fed HF or HF supplemented with 0.05% quercetin (HFQ) for 6 weeks. Mice fed the HFQ diet gained 69.7% less weight, and liver weight, adipose weight, liver lipid content and blood glucose level were also lowered by 19.6%, 58.3%, 35.4% and 25.4%, respectively. Diabetes related plasma biomarkers insulin, leptin, resistin and glucagon were significantly reduced by quercetin supplementation while ghrelin was increased. In feces, quercetin supplementation significantly increased the relative abundance of Akkermansia and decreased the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio. The expression of genes, Srebf1, Ppara, Cyp51, Scd1 and Fasn were down-regulated while Slc2a4 and Adipoq were up-regulated by quercetin supplementation. These results indicate that diabetes biomarkers are associated with early metabolic changes accompanying obesity and quercetin may prevent insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.