Anti-hyperlipidemia effect of sea buckthorn fruit oil extract through the AMPK and Akt signaling pathway in hamsters

Abstract

In this study, golden syrian hamsters were regarded as modeling objects, a series of sea buckthorn fruit oil (SBFO) extract, which is rich in palmitoleic acid (POA), was evaluated through in vivo experiments to explore its mechanism of action in anti-hyperlipidemia. The results revealed that SBFO extract could control body weight and adipose tissue mass, relieve fat accumulation, together with improving total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) level in dose-dependent manner. The extract could also alleviate oxidative stress and liver impairment caused by hyperlipemia through regulating antioxidant enzyme. RQ-PCR and western blotting analyses suggested that SBFO extract could affect the expression of key genes in AMPK and Akt pathway and promote the phosphorylation of AMPK and Akt proteins. As a conclusion, SBFO extract had antilipemic function on hyperlipidemia hamsters and could be used for future development of functional food and dietary supplements.