Dietary chlorogenic acid alleviates high-fat diet-induced steatotic liver disease by regulating metabolites and gut microbiota

Abstract

The high-fat diet would lead to excessive fat storage in the liver to form metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), and the trend is burgeoning. The aim of the study is to investigate the effects of chlorogenic acid (CGA) on metabolites and gut microorganisms in MASLD mice induced by a high-fat diet. In comparison to the HF group, the TC (total cholesterol), TG (total triglycerides), LDL-C (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol), AST (aspartate aminotransferase) and ALT (alanine transaminase) levels were reduced after CGA supplement. CGA led to an increase in l-phenylalanine, l-tryptophan levels, and promoted fatty acid degradation. CGA increased the abundance of the Muribaculaceae, Bacteroides and Parabacteroides. Changes in these microbes were significantly associated with the liver metabolites level and lipid profile level. These data suggest important roles for CGA regulating the gut microbiota, liver and caecum content metabolites, and TG-, TC- and LDL-C lowering function.

Keywords:

• Chlorogenic acid
• metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease
• gut microbiota
• metabolomics
• gut–liver axis

Author contributions

Yujuan Yu: methodology, formal analysis, writing – original draft, visualisation, and project administration. Fumao Zeng: methodology, formal analysis, writing – original draft, and visualisation. Peiheng Han: software, validation and investigation. Li Zhang: investigation, writing – review and editing. Ling Yang: software and formal analysis. Feng Zhou: methodology and formal analysis. Qing Liu: software, formal analysis and visualisation. Zheng Ruan: conceptualisation, supervision, project administration and writing – review and editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Fund (Nos. 32060539 and 31872897) and the Research Project of the State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology (No. SKLF-ZZB-202125).