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Blueberry and cranberry anthocyanin extracts reduce bodyweight and modulate gut microbiota in C57BL/6 J mice fed with a high-fat diet

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Abstract

Purpose

Blueberry and cranberry are rich in anthocyanins. The present study was to investigate the effects of anthocyanin extracts from blueberry and cranberry on body weight and gut microbiota.

Methods

C57BL/6 J Mice were divided into six groups (n = 9 each) fed one of six diets namely low-fat diet (LFD), high-fat diet (HFD), HFD with the addition of 1% blueberry extract (BL), 2% blueberry extract (BH), 1% cranberry extract (CL), and 2% cranberry extract (CH), respectively.

Results

Feeding BL and BH diets significantly decreased body weight gain by 20–23%, total adipose tissue weight by 18–20%, and total liver lipids by 16–18% compared with feeding HFD. Feeding CH diet but not CL diet reduced the body weight by 27%, accompanied by a significant reduction of total plasma cholesterol by 25% and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) by 38%. The metagenomic analysis showed that the supplementation of blueberry and cranberry anthocyanin extracts reduced plasma lipopolysaccharide concentration, accompanied by a reduction in the relative abundance of Rikenella and Rikenellaceae. Dietary supplementation of berry anthocyanin extracts promoted the growth of Lachnoclostridium, Roseburia, and Clostridium_innocuum_group in genus level, leading to a greater production of fecal short-chain fatty acids (SCFA).

Conclusions

It was concluded that both berry anthocyanins could manage the body weight and favorably modulate the gut microbiota at least in mice.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by a GRF grant of Hong Kong University Grants Committee (Project title:14105820).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Food Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, Nanjing, China

    Jianhui Liu & Ning Ma

  2. School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, NT, China

    Jianhui Liu, Wangjun Hao, Zouyan He, Erika Kwek, Hanyue Zhu, Ka Ying Ma & Zhen-Yu Chen

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  1. Jianhui Liu
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Correspondence to Zhen-Yu Chen.

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Liu, J., Hao, W., He, Z. et al. Blueberry and cranberry anthocyanin extracts reduce bodyweight and modulate gut microbiota in C57BL/6 J mice fed with a high-fat diet. Eur J Nutr 60, 2735–2746 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-020-02446-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-020-02446-3

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