Molecular evidence for potential use of cottonseed bioactive materials as anti-obesity agents

Authors: Cao, Heping; Sethumadhavan, Kandan

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/6/2024
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes are epidemic in the US and around the world. Approximately 42% of the U.S. adult population and 20% of adolescents and children were obese in 2017-20, and ~12% of US population were diabetic in 2021 (www.cdc.gov). Finding ways to slowdown and prevent the occurrence would have tremendous benefits for reducing healthcare cost and improving life quality. Cottonseed contains many bioactive compounds. These bioactive compounds from other plant sources have been used for disease prevention and treatment since ancient history. Therefore, cottonseed value may be increased by providing bioactive compounds for health promotion and disease prevention. The objective of this study was to explore the bioactivity of cottonseed extracts on the regulation of glucose transporter (GLUT) gene expression in mouse macrophages. The selection of macrophages and GLUT genes was because macrophages are involved in insulin resistance and metabolic diseases and GLUT proteins are critically important for host immunity due to facilitating glucose transport across the lipid membrane of the cell. Mouse macrophages were treated with various concentrations of cottonseed extracts for different time followed by qPCR analysis. Among the class I facilitative GLUTs (GLUT1, GLUT2, GLUT3 and GLUT4), GLUT3 was more abundant than GLUT1 but GLUT4 was much less and GLUT2 was undetectable in the cells. Cottonseed extracts modestly regulated GLUT gene expression. Specifically, glanded seed coat and kernel extracts significantly increased GLUT1 mRNA levels in macrophages treated with higher concentrations of the extracts for 24 h. Cottonseed kernel extracts significantly decreased GLUT3 mRNA levels but cottonseed coat extract significantly increased GLUT4 mRNA levels in the cells. The fact that the major form of GLUT3 gene expression was only reduced by cottonseed kernel exact but glanded kernel exact also increased GLUT1 mRNA levels indicates that only glandless kernel extract decreased GLUT3 but not increased other GLUTs. These study suggest that glandless kernel extract may be used to as an anti-obesity agent by reducing glucose transport into macrophages thus decreasing the potency of macrophage that causes inflammatory condition in obese tissue.