Improvement of Diet-induced Obesity by Ingestion of Mushroom Chitosan Prepared from Flammulina velutipes.

The anti-obesity effects of mushroom chitosan prepared from Flammulina velutipes were investigated using an animal model with diet-induced obesity. In this study, 5-week-old imprinting control region (ICR) mice were divided into six groups of 10 mice each and fed different diets based on the MF powdered diet (standard diet) for 6 weeks: standard diet control group, high-fat diet control group (induced dietary obesity) consisting of the standard diet and 20% lard, and mushroom chitosan groups consisting of the high-fat diet with mushroom chitosan added at 100, 500, 1,000, and 2,000 mg/kg body weight. On the final day of the experiment, mean body weight was 39.1 g in the high-fat control group and 36.3 g in the 2,000 mg/kg mushroom chitosan group, compared to 35.8 g in the standard diet control group. In the mushroom chitosan groups, a dose-dependent suppression of weight gain and marked improvements in serum triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and HDL-cholesterol were found. The mushroom chitosan groups showed fewer and smaller fat deposits in liver cells than the high-fat diet control group, and liver weight was significantly reduced. Glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) and glutamate pyruvic transaminase (GPT), which are indices of the hepatic function, all showed dose-dependent improvement with mushroom chitosan administration. These results suggested that mushroom chitosan acts to suppress enlargement of the liver from fat deposition resulting from a high-fat diet and to restore hepatic function. The lipid content of feces showed a marked increase correlated with the mushroom chitosan dose. These findings suggest the potential use of mushroom chitosan as a functional food ingredient that contributes to the prevention or improvement of dietary obesity by inhibiting digestion and absorption of fats in the digestive tract and simultaneously promotes lipolysis in adipocytes.