Che Xi, Zhao Yifei, Wang Yuxiao, Sun Xin, Tao Hongxun, Zhang Rentang
College of Food Science and Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, Shandong, China.
College of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China.
Front Nutr. 2025 May 6;12:1580439. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1580439. eCollection 2025.
Obesity, a growing public health issue, is closely associated with excessive energy intake and gut microbiota imbalances. Despite the increasing attention given to black jujube as a blackened fermented food in recent years, the role of its melanoidins (MLD) in obesity-related biological mechanisms has yet to be thoroughly investigated.
This study investigated the effects of black jujube MLD on obesity induced by a high-fat diet in C57BL/6J mice. We hypothesize that MLD exerts an anti-obesity effect, potentially mediated by alterations in gut microbiota composition and the modulation of metabolic responses.
The results demonstrate that MLD administration mitigated HFD-induced weight gain, improved insulin resistance, and enhanced glucose metabolism by reducing blood glucose and insulin levels ( < 0.05). MLD also protected the liver, as evidenced by a 16.4% decrease in alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels and a 29.6% decrease in aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels ( < 0.05). Furthermore, MLD treatment restored the compromised intestinal microbiota to a healthier state at the genus level by lowering the / ratio (38.9%), suppressing the abundance of pathogenic bacteria, such as and descendants, and promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria, including . Metabolomic profiling revealed that MLD can alleviate metabolic disorders by downregulating arginine metabolism and sphingolipid metabolism. Its metabolites are significantly correlated with several bacterial genera, including , and .
Based on these findings, MLD may mitigate obesity and other associated metabolic disorders by modulating the gut microbiome-metabolism axis.
肥胖作为一个日益严重的公共卫生问题，与能量摄入过多和肠道微生物群失衡密切相关。尽管近年来黑枣作为一种发酵黑化食品受到越来越多的关注，但其黑色素（MLD）在肥胖相关生物学机制中的作用尚未得到充分研究。
本研究调查了黑枣MLD对C57BL/6J小鼠高脂饮食诱导的肥胖的影响。我们假设MLD发挥抗肥胖作用，可能是通过改变肠道微生物群组成和调节代谢反应来介导的。
结果表明，给予MLD可减轻高脂饮食诱导的体重增加，改善胰岛素抵抗，并通过降低血糖和胰岛素水平增强葡萄糖代谢（<0.05）。MLD还对肝脏起到保护作用，丙氨酸转氨酶（ALT）水平降低16.4%，天冬氨酸转氨酶（AST）水平降低29.6%证明了这一点（<0.05）。此外，MLD治疗通过降低Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes比率（38.9%）、抑制诸如Enterococcus和Escherichia的后代等病原菌的丰度以及促进包括Bifidobacterium在内的有益菌生长，在属水平上将受损的肠道微生物群恢复到更健康的状态。代谢组学分析表明，MLD可通过下调精氨酸代谢和鞘脂代谢来缓解代谢紊乱。其代谢产物与几个细菌属显著相关，包括Enterococcus、Escherichia和Bifidobacterium。
基于这些发现，MLD可能通过调节肠道微生物群-代谢轴来减轻肥胖和其他相关代谢紊乱。
