title: The Extract of Herbal Medicines Activates AMP-Activated Protein Kinase in Diet-Induced Obese Rats.
abstract: Our study investigated whether the extract of six herbal medicines (OB-1) has an inhibitory effect on obesity. High-fat diet-(HFD-) induced rats and controls were treated with 40 mg/100 g body weight of OB-1 or saline once a day for 5 weeks. After significant changes in body weight were induced, OB-1 and saline were administered to each subgroup of HFD and control groups for additional 5 weeks. No statistically significant decrease of body weight in OB-1-treated rats was found compared to controls. However, OB-1-treated rats were found to be more active in an open-field test and have a reduction in the size of adipocytes compared to controls. We observed no changes in the mRNA expressions of leptin and adiponectin from adipocytes between OB-1- and saline-treated rats with HFD-induced obesity group. However, OB-1 treatments were shown to be inversely correlated with accumulation of lipid droplets in liver tissue, suggesting that OB-1 could inhibit a lipid accumulation by blocking the pathway related to lipid metabolism. Moreover, the phosphorylation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) was significantly increased in OB-1-treated rats with HFD compared to controls. These results suggest that OB-1 has no direct antiobesity effect and, however, could be a regulator of cellular metabolism.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical Biology and Pharmacogenomics and Center for Clinical Research and Genomics, Institute of Oriental Medicine, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hye-Yeon
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Saeyeon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Soon Re
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Ji-Hye
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hye-Sook
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.forename: Yong-Cheol
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Seong-Gyu
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Ko