Anti-adipogenic and lipid-lowering activity of piperine and epigallocatechin gallate in 3T3-L1 adipocytes

Abstract

The present study was aimed to evaluate the anti-adipogenic activity of piperine (PIP) and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in 3T3-L1 cells. In cytotoxicity studies, PIP and EGCG showed IC₅₀ values of 260 and 218 µM respectively and in combination (20 µM each) did not show cytotoxicity. Treatment with PIP and EGCG (20 µM each) significantly (p<.01) inhibited cell differentiation, lipid droplets deposition and enhanced glycerol release in 3T3-L1 cells. The secreted level of leptin was decreased but adiponectin level was increased in treated 3T3-L1 cells than untreated cells. In molecular expression studies, key adipogenic genes PPAR-γ, SREBP-1c, FAS, Fab-4, C/EBP-α and HMG-CoA reductase were markedly down-regulated but UCP-1 was up-regulated in

treated 3T3-L1 cells and the same trend was observed in expression levels of selected proteins. In conclusion, our results demonstrated a combination of PIP and EGCG exhibited strong anti-adipogenic and lipid lowering effect than individual treatments due to synergism.

Keywords:

• 3T3-L1 cells
• adipogenesis
• epigallocatechin gallate
• lipolysis
• piperine

Acknowledgements

The authors thank DST-FIST Department of Biochemistry and DST-PURSE, S.V.University, Tirupati for their support.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the DST-SERB-EMR [SERB/EMR/2016/001831, Dt: 19–07-2018].