Association of dietary intake of fruit and green vegetables with PTEN and P53 mRNA gene expression in visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissues of obese and non-obese adults

Understanding the Impact of Obesity on Ageing in the Radiance of DNA Metabolism

Ageing is a multi-factorial phenomenon which is considered as a major risk factor for the development of neurodegeneration, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, dementia, cancer, and other chronic diseases. Phenotypically, ageing is related with a combination of molecular, cellular, and physiological levels like genomic and epi-genomic alterations, loss of proteostasis, deregulation of cellular and subcellular function and mitochondrial dysfunction. Though, no single molecular mechanism accounts for the functional decline of different organ systems in older humans but accumulation of DNA damage or mutations is a dominant theory which contributes largely to the development of ageing and age-related diseases. However, mechanistic, and hierarchical order of these features of ageing has not been clarified yet. Scientific community now focus on the effect of obesity on accelerated ageing process. Obesity is a complex chronic disease that affects multiple organs and tissues. It can not only lead to various health conditions such as diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease but also can decrease life expectancy which shows similar phenotype of ageing. Higher loads of DNA damage were also observed in the genome of obese people. Thus, inability of DNA damage repair may contribute to both ageing and obesity apart from cancer predisposition. The present review emphasizes on the involvement of molecular phenomenon of DNA metabolism in development of obesity and how it accelerates ageing in mammals.

Association of miR-34a and miR-143 levels with PPARγ gene expression in adipose tissues of non-diabetic adults

BACKGROUND

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) is a promising therapeutic molecule. Epigenetic mechanisms, including non-coding RNAs, regulate the expression level of the PPARγ gene.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to examine the PPARγ expression in non-diabetic individuals in four body mass index (BMI) categories and its association with miR-34a and miR-143 expression.

METHODS

Visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissues (VAT and SAT) samples were collected from patients undergoing bariatric or elective open abdominal surgeries. The subjects (mean age: 42±14.8 years) included 18 normal-weight, 19 overweight, 18 obese, and 19 morbidly obese individuals. The RNAs levels were determined by quantitative real-time PCR.

RESULTS

The PPARγ expression was significantly upregulated in both adipose depots of the morbidly obese subjects compared to the normal group. SAT PPARγ level was significantly increased in the obese group compared to the normal-weight group (P<0.01); this increase was also significant in the SAT of morbidly obese subjects compared to the overweight cases (P=0.02). Differences in the regulation of PPARγ expression in both SAT and VAT were significant between the four groups (P<0.05). While miR-143 was overexpressed in the SAT of obese and morbidly obese individuals compared to the normal-weight group, the pairwise comparison showed no significant difference in the miR-34a expression of SAT between the four BMI groups (P>0.01). After controlling for the confounding factors, the expression of VAT PPARγ was directly associated with the miR-34a level in the normal-weight group (β=0.311, P=0.010). A negative association was observed between the VAT PPARγ expression and miR-34a expression in obese cases (β = - 0.594, P=0.039).

CONCLUSION

The results also confirmed the regulatory function of microRNAs in the PPARγ expression and adipogenesis.

Natural Dietary and Medicinal Plants with Anti-Obesity Therapeutics Activities for Treatment and Prevention of Obesity during Lock Down and in Post-COVID-19 Era

Overweight and obesity have become global epidemics, especially during the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The potential of medicinal plants as a better and safe option in treating obesity and overweight has gained attention in recent years. Obesity and overweight has become a major public health concern, and its incidence rising at an alarming rate. Obesity is one of the major types of metabolic syndrome, resulting in various types of problems such as hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and excess fat accumulation. The current searching was done by the keywords in main indexing systems including Scopus, PubMed/MEDLINE, the search engine of Google Scholar, and Institute for Scientific Web of Science. The keywords were traditional medicine, health benefits, pharmaceutical science, pomegranate, punicalin, punicalagin, and ellagitannins. Google Scholar was searched manually for possible missing manuscripts, and there was no language restriction in the search. This review was carried out to highlight the importance of medicinal plants which are common in traditional medicinal sciences of different countries, especially Asia to prevent and treatment of obesity and overweight during the global pandemic and the post-COVID-19 era.