Celastrol alleviates high-fat diet-induced obesity via enhanced muscle glucose utilization and mitochondrial oxidative metabolism-mediated upregulation of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex.

Celastrol, a natural triterpene from the Tripterygium wilfordii has been demonstrated to possess attributive properties to attenuate various animal models of obesity-associated conditions. The present study aimed to elucidate the putative targets of celastrol on intracellular glucose utilization and mitochondrial oxidative metabolism in the isolated quadriceps skeletal muscle of high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese male C57BL6/J mice. Here we showed that celastrol remarkably attenuated obesity and insulin resistance through improvement of systemic glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. Enhanced mRNA transcription factors of key rate-limiting glycolytic and TCA cycle enzymes were observed following celastrol administration. The metabolic profiling revealed profound changes induced by celastrol administration on several key metabolites of glycolysis and tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle including glucose-1-phosphate, pyruvate, citrate, α-ketoglutarate, succinate and fumarate. Celastrol effectively increased mitochondrial oxidative functions via increased pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC) activity and downregulated pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 (PDK4) expressions. Enhanced succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) activity was noticed following celastrol co-supplementation, leading to a steady establishment of the electrochemical gradient across mitochondrial membrane for ATP production and mitochondrial biogenesis. In conclusion, the current findings accentuate the therapeutic potential of celastrol against HFD-induced obese mice via enhanced glucose utilization and mitochondrial oxidative metabolism-mediated upregulation of PDC activity in the skeletal muscle.