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Cycloastragenol inhibits adipogenesis and fat accumulation in vitro and in vivo through activating Hedgehog signaling

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Abstract

In this study, we investigated the effect of cycloastragenol (CAG), a triterpenoid isolated from Astragalus membranaceus roots, on regulating the adipogenesis and fat accumulation in vitro and in vivo. During the adipogenesis of 3T3-L1 cells, CAG inhibited lipid accumulation and the expression of key adipogenic factors, proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) and CCAAT enhancer binding protein α (C/EBPα) and increased the expression of Gli1, a key mediator in Hedgehog (Hh) signaling. In HFD-induced animal experiment, CAG significantly reduced body weight gain without affecting brown fat weight. In addition, CAG regulated the expression of PPARγ, C/EBPα, and Gli1 in visceral white adipose tissue (vWAT). We also confirmed the inhibitory effect of CAG on specifically targeting white adipose tissue (WAT) formation in stromal vascular fraction (SVF) cell differentiation. Taken together, these results suggest that CAG may be a potent phytochemical preventing adipogenesis and obesity via Hh signaling.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2022R1A2C1092959) and a Grant (21153MFDS605) from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2023 and the Chung-Ang University Graduate Research Scholarship in 2023.

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  1. Jin Tae Kim and Jing Chen have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, Chung-Ang University, Anseong, 456-756, South Korea

    Jin Tae Kim, Yimeng Zhou, Moon Jeong Son, Dong Hyeon Jeon, Jung Won Kwon, Ga Yeon Lee & Hong Jin Lee

  2. Institute for Advanced and Applied Chemical Synthesis, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China

    Jing Chen

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  1. Jin Tae Kim
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Kim, J.T., Chen, J., Zhou, Y. et al. Cycloastragenol inhibits adipogenesis and fat accumulation in vitro and in vivo through activating Hedgehog signaling. Food Sci Biotechnol 33, 711–720 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10068-023-01403-0

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