Asiatic Acid Alleviates Hemodynamic and Metabolic Alterations via Restoring eNOS/iNOS Expression, Oxidative Stress, and Inflammation in Diet-Induced Metabolic Syndrome Rats

Nutrients

Poungrat Pakdeechote¹  Sarawoot Bunbupha¹  Upa Kukongviriyapan¹  Parichat Prachaney²  Wilaiwan Khrisanapant¹ 

[1] Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand; E-Mails:;Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand; E-Mail:

关键词: metabolic syndrome;    asiatic acid;    inflammation;    oxidative stress;   

DOI  :  10.3390/nu6010355

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Asiatic acid is a triterpenoid isolated from Centella asiatica. The present study aimed to investigate whether asiatic acid could lessen the metabolic, cardiovascular complications in rats with metabolic syndrome (MS) induced by a high-carbohydrate, high-fat (HCHF) diet. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed with HCHF diet with 15% fructose in drinking water for 12 weeks to induce MS. MS rats were treated with asiatic acid (10 or 20 mg/kg/day) or vehicle for a further three weeks. MS rats had an impairment of oral glucose tolerance, increases in fasting blood glucose, serum insulin, total cholesterol, triglycerides, mean arterial blood pressure, heart rate, and hindlimb vascular resistance; these were related to the augmentation of vascular superoxide anion production, plasma malondialdehyde and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) levels (p < 0.05). Plasma nitrate and nitrite (NOx) were markedly high with upregulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression, but dowregulation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) expression (p < 0.05). Asiatic acid significantly improved insulin sensitivity, lipid profiles, hemodynamic parameters, oxidative stress markers, plasma TNF-α, NOx, and recovered abnormality of eNOS/iNOS expressions in MS rats (p < 0.05). In conclusion, asiatic acid improved metabolic, hemodynamic abnormalities in MS rats that could be associated with its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory effects and recovering regulation of eNOS/iNOS expression.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.