Anthocyanins from purple corn ameliorated obesity in high fat diet-induced obese mice through activating hepatic AMPK

Anthocyanins are the predominant bioactive compounds in purple corn. Various studies suggested that anthocyanins from purple corn (APM) not only provide color but also provide potential health-promoting properties. However, there is no research addressing the antiobesity effects of APM via hepatic AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) pathway. We find that APM administration (400 mg/kg) significantly decreased body weight gain, epididymal fat mass, total cholesterol and total triglyceride levels in HFD mice. Quantitative PCR analysis revealed that APM down-regulated the expression of PPAR gamma, C/EBP alpha and SREBP-1c, concurrently up-regulated the expression of PPAR alpha, PGC1 alpha, PRDM16, and FGF21. Besides, Western blot analysis confirmed that APM promoted hepatic AMPK activity, then blocked ACC activity, which was the key enzyme in lipid synthase. These findings suggested that APM-induced activation of hepatic AMPK leads to a decrease in fatty acid synthase and an increase in fatty acid oxidation. Therefore, we inferred that APM has the potential for obesity prevention.