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The efficacy of combined extracts of red yeast rice and fenugreek on attenuating lipotoxicity in human HepG2 hepatocytes
Author(s) -
Chen TzuChieh,
Lo HuiChen,
Su RueyChih,
Shen SihYu
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.lb297
Subject(s) - lipotoxicity , steatosis , red yeast rice , lipogenesis , lipid droplet , apoptosis , triglyceride , chemistry , nonalcoholic fatty liver disease , medicine , hyperlipidemia , endocrinology , fatty liver , palmitic acid , insulin resistance , fatty acid , biochemistry , biology , lipid metabolism , insulin , diabetes mellitus , cholesterol , disease , fermentation
Non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a progressive, complicated disease initiated by fat accumulation in the liver, is closely related to obesity, insulin resistance, and hyperlipidemia. The excessive fat‐induced degeneration in hepatocytes may cause cell damage and result in the progression of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis including liver inflammation, necrosis, and fibrosis in patients with NAFLD. Evidence shows that red yeast rice and fenugreek may have the activities to down‐regulate lipogenesis. Using an in vitro platform of human HepG2 hepatocytes incubated with oleic acid (OA) and palmitic acid (PA), we investigated the efficacy of combined extracts of red yeast rice and fenugreek on attenuating the progression of NAFLD. After incubated with different levels of OA/PA (2:1 w/w) for 24 hours, the HepG2 cells with 0.8, 1.6, and 2.4 mM of OA/PA had increased levels of oil red and those with 2.4 mM had approximately 65% of cell viability and 4‐folds of apoptosis compared with those without OA/PA. These results confirmed that OA/PA‐induced lipotoxicity is dose dependent in HepG2 cells. We further showed that the optimal dose of phosphatidylcholine (PC) as a positive control was in the range of 10 −1 to 10 −3 μg/ml as the lipid content was significantly decreased without affecting the growth of HepG2 cells. In normal and lipotoxic HepG2 cells, administration of combined extracts of red yeast rice and fenugreek, as low as 10–3 μg/ml, significantly decreased the lipid content and the percentage of apoptosis. Taken together, the results of this study indicated that HepG2 cells incubated with OA and PA accompanied with the positive control PC may be a useful in vitro platform to evaluate the protective and therapeutic effects of natural and synthetic compounds for different stages of NAFLD. In addition, the mixed extract of red yeast rice and fenugreek may have the potential as a function food to attenuate the progression of NAFLD.