Preliminary Mechanistic Study on the Preventive Effect of Soybean PA Extract on Obesity Induced by High-Fat Diet

We systematically observed the effects of PA by constructing an obesity model in mice. Preliminary results indicate that a high-fat diet (HFD) containing PA can reverse the obesity process in mice. In mice fed with HFD, the addition of PA can prevent the elevation of lipoprotein a [LP(a)] levels, which is a risk factor for atherosclerosis. These results suggest that PA may have the potential to prevent obesity as well as cardiovascular and heart-related diseases.To further explore the mechanism of action of PA, we continued RNA-seq experiments on mice fed with a normal diet (ND), HFD, and HFD supplemented with different concentrations of PA (HFD + PA). The results indicate that hundreds of HFD-regulated genes are functionally enriched in fat metabolism and defense systems. The high-fat diet containing PA reverses a significant portion of the upregulated and downregulated genes induced by HFD, with the reversed genes significantly enriched in metabolism and defense Gene Ontology (GO) terms. This suggests that PA may prevent obesity and inflammatory infections in mice by interfering with lipid synthesis and improving defense systems. Overall design: Each cage was allocated 4-5 male C57BL/6J mice at 3 weeks of age. The mice were acclimated to standard conditions for one week before being randomly divided into two groups. One group was fed with standard rodent chow, while the other group was fed with high-fat chow (containing 15% lard, 10% sugar, and 3% egg yolk powder). After 11 weeks, the group fed with high-fat chow formed the obesity model mice. In the 12th week, the obesity model mice were re-divided into three groups: the first group continued to be fed with high-fat chow (HFD, n=7), the second group was fed with high-fat chow containing 0.25% PA (HFD + 0.25% PA, n=8), and the third group was fed with high-fat chow containing 1% PA (HFD + 1% PA, n=8). Normal mice continued to be fed with standard rodent chow. The body weight of the mice was measured weekly throughout the study.