Therapeutic Effects and Mechanisms of Pomegranate in the Treatment of Hyperlipidemia
Pomegranate exhibits pronounced hypolipidemic properties, and the objective of this study was to delineate the precise mechanism by which pomegranate facilitates the treatment of hyperlipidemia.SD rats were fed with a high fat diet (HFD) to establish an hyperlipidemia model and intervened with pomegranate .Pomegranate significantly lowered body weight gain , liver weight and adipose tissue coefficient, and attenuated the hepatic steatosis.Serum concentrations of triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were markedly reduced, concomitant with a significant elevation in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels. Metabolomic analysis revealed that pomegranate treatment significantly modulated 37 metabolites linked to hyperlipidemia, with the primary pathways affected encompassing sphingolipid metabolism, pyrimidine metabolism, and arachidonic acid metabolism. Transcriptomic profiling identified 439 genes differentially expressed following pomegranate treatment, which were associated with various lipid-related and inflammatory pathways, predominantly including the lipid and atherosclerosis signaling pathway, NF-?B signaling pathway, and TNF signaling pathway. Overall design: RNA-seq analysis of three groups of SD rats (normal control group, model group, and pomegranate-high group) after eight weeks of drug administration