Chlorogenic acid and caffeine in combination inhibit fat accumulation by regulating hepatic lipid metabolism-related enzymes in mice.

Obesity has become a public health concern due to its positive association with the incidence of many diseases, and coffee components including chlorogenic acid (CGA) and caffeine have been demonstrated to play roles in the suppression of fat accumulation. To investigate the mechanism by which CGA and caffeine regulate lipid metabolism, in the present study, forty mice were randomly assigned to four groups and fed diets containing no CGA or caffeine, CGA, caffeine, or CGA+caffeine for 24 weeks. Body weight, intraperitoneal adipose tissue (IPAT) weight, and serum biochemical parameters were measured, and the activities and mRNA and protein expression of lipid metabolism-related enzymes were analysed. There was a decrease in the body weight and IPAT weight of mice fed the CGA+caffeine diet. There was a significant decrease in the serum and hepatic concentrations of total cholesterol, TAG and leptin of mice fed the CGA+caffeine diet. The activities of carnitine acyltransferase (CAT) and acyl-CoA oxidase (ACO) were increased in mice fed the caffeine and CGA+caffeine diets, while the activity of fatty acid synthase (FAS) was suppressed in those fed the CGA+caffeine diet. The mRNA expression levels of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), CAT and ACO were considerably up-regulated in mice fed the CGA+caffeine diet, while those of PPARγ2 were down-regulated. The protein expression levels of AMPK were increased and those of FAS were decreased in mice fed the CGA+caffeine diet. These results indicate that CGA+caffeine suppresses fat accumulation and body weight gain by regulating the activities and mRNA and protein expression levels of hepatic lipid metabolism-related enzymes and that these effects are stronger than those exerted by CGA and caffeine individually.