(P31-011-23) Cheonggukjang Improves Obesity Related Parameters and Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis in High Fat Diet Induced Obese Mice

Objectives: High-fat diets intake promotes obesity and intestinal microbiota dysbiosis. Cheonggukjang, a Korean fermented food is known for its anti-diabetic effect. Diabetes and obesity pathologies are intertwined thus, we aimed to prove that traditional cheonggukjang samples will exhibit an anti-obesity effect as well. In addition, evaluate its effect on gut microbiota in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mice.

Methods: For 14 weeks, C57BL/6J male mice were separated into four groups and fed a normal diet (ND), a high-fat diet only (HD), a HD with 30% cheonggukjang containing 38.5% beneficial microbes (CGJL), a HD with 30% cheonggukjang containing 83.8% beneficial microbes (CGJH).

Results: Compared to HD, ND, CGJL and CGJH had lower body weight, insulin, glucose and blood leptin (where ND and CGJH had markedly lower levels compared to CGJL) levels, also, increased adiponectin levels, and improved serum and liver lipid profiles. In addition, cheonggukjang supplemented groups reported a significant reduction in hepatic mRNA expression of anabolic lipid metabolism related; PPARγ, CEBPα and FABP4, a significant increase in mRNA expression of fatty acid oxidation-related; PPARα, UCP2 and CPT1. In the epididymal adipose tissue, CGJL and CGJH groups exhibited significantly lower mRNA expression of lipolytic HSL, ATGL and LPL genes. NGS Sequencing in fecal samples revealed cheonggukjang supplementation ameliorated HD-induced intestinal microbiota dysbiosis by increasing the alpha and beta diversity of gut microbiota and alteration in the composition of intestinal microbiota compared to HD, particularly in the relative abundances of Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. CGJL had a higher Chao and Shannon index compared to CGJH, however, CGJL had a higher relative abundance of obesity promoting gut microbiota such as Proteobacteria.

Conclusions: This work was supported by “Functional identification of Korean traditional soybean products (safety monitoring) project” under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and partly Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food trade corporation in 2022.

Funding Sources: This work was supported by BK21 FOUR Program by Jeonbuk National University Research Grant.