Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 28, 2019; 25(8): 955-966
Published online Feb 28, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i8.955
Procyanidin B2 protects against diet-induced obesity and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease via the modulation of the gut microbiota in rabbits
Ya-Wei Xing, Guang-Tao Lei, Qing-Hua Wu, Yu Jiang, Man-Xiang Huang
Ya-Wei Xing, Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410011, Hunan Province, China
Guang-Tao Lei, Qing-Hua Wu, Yu Jiang, Man-Xiang Huang, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi Province, China
Author contributions: Lei GT designed the research; Xing YW performed the research; Wu QH funded the research; Jiang Y and Huang MX analyzed and interpreted the data; Xing YW wrote the paper.
Supported by Major Projects of Science and Technology in Jiangxi, No. 20161ACG70012.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: This study was approved by the Animal Research Committee, Central South University, Hunan, China.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interests.
Data sharing statement: Raw sequencing data are available from the corresponding author at lgtmhu@163.com. Participants gave informed consent for data sharing.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guideline.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Guang-Tao Lei, MD, Chief Doctor, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, 1st Minde Road, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi Province, China. lgtmhu@163.com
Telephone: +86-13257090106 Fax: +86-791-86311676
Received: December 17, 2018
Peer-review started: December 17, 2018
First decision: January 18, 2019
Revised: January 25, 2019
Accepted: January 28, 2019
Article in press: January 29, 2019
Published online: February 28, 2019
Processing time: 72 Days and 21.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Procyanidins are widely recognized for their excellent antioxidant properties and fewer side effects compared to other drugs. In the past, the mechanism of procyanidin to improve insulin resistance mainly focused on the antioxidant effect. The effect of procyanidin on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is not clear. We found that procyanidin can reduce fatty liver by remodeling intestinal flora, decreasing endotoxemia, and down-regulating fatty acid synthesis genes. Our results open a new chapter in the mechanism of action of plant compounds and suggest a safer method for the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.