A leaf extract from A. okamotoanum Nakai has a potential to be used astherapeutic agents for preventing obesity. - GreenMedInfo Summary

family contains several species with various bioactivities including antioxidant, antitumor and anti-inflammatory properties. However,Nakai, one species offamily, have not fully studied yet. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the anti-adipogenic activities of leaf extract fromNakai (named as LEAO) on 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. Adipogenesis is one ofthe cell differentiation processes, which converts preadipocytes into mature adipocytes. Nowadays, inhibition of adipogenesis is considered as an effective strategy in the field of anti-obesity researches.In thisstudy, weobserved that LEAO decreased the accumulation of lipid droplets during adipogenesis and down-regulated the expression of key adipogenic transcription factors such as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptorγ (PPAR γ) and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α (C/EBP α). In addition, LEAO inactivated PI3K/Akt signaling and its downstream factors that promotes adipogenesis by inducing the expression of PPAR γ. Whereas, LEAO activated β-catenin signaling, which prevents adipogenic program through suppressing the expression of PPAR γ. Therefore, we found that the treatment of LEAO is effective for attenuating adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 cells. Consequently, these findings suggest that LEAO has a potential to be used astherapeutic agents for preventing obesity.