Abstract:

Obesity is considered to be in a low-grade inflammatory state and the secretion of inflammation-related cytokines
rises as adipose tissue expands. Inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interlukin 6 (IL-6)
and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1(MCP-1), are modulated by adipose tissue and play an important role in metabolic
disease, which is one of the common characteristics of obesity-related disorders. In this study, the effects of oxidized konjac
glucomannan(OKGM) on inflammatory cytokines in C57/BL6J mice fed a high-fat (HF) diet were analyzed. Male C57BL/6J
mice were randomly divided into five groups with 12 mice in each group (n = 12): control (CL); a HF-diet and a HF-diet
containing 50, 25, 12.5 g/kg of OKGM, namely OKGN (H), OKGM (M) and OKGM (L) respectively, for 12 weeks. The
serum levels of FFA, TNF-α, IL-6 and MCP-1 of HF group were significantly higher than those of CL group. The size of
adipocytes and the serum levels of FFA, TNF-α, IL-6 and MCP-1 in HF-fed mice were significantly reduced by treatments
with increasing OKGM doses. These results suggest that OKGM can suppress the serum FFA and inflammatory cytokines
and also affect the size of epididymal adipocytes in C57BL/6J mice fed a high-fat diet, thus probably having a potentially
preventive effect on obesity-related metabolic diseases.

Key words: oxidized konjac glucomannan, obesity, inflammatory cytokines, adipocyte