Effetti dell’estratto di Vitis vinifera sull’obesità dieta/indotta nello zebrafish (Danio rerio): Studio morfologico e molecolare

ABSTRACT Obesity, due to an imbalance between energy intake and consumption, is now reaching epidemic proportions. Therefore, researchers make considerable effort to find effective treatments, strategies of obesity prevention and to test several natural compounds for anti-obesity properties. Extract from Vitis vinifera was administered daily to control and overfed zebrafish for 4 weeks; differences in BMI, gene expression (leptin, ghrelin, orexin, POMC, NPY in brain and gut) and morphometry of visceral and subcutaneous fat depots were analysed. Treated fish showed reduced BMI and affected gene expression, compared to untreated fish. In particular, treated overfed fish displayed a downregulation in brain leptin and ghrelin and upregulation in brain orexin, NPY; gut leptin, ghrelin and orexin were downregulated and gut and NPY were upregulated. In summary, consistently with previous results from rodent models, it seems that adequate administration of Vitis vinifera extract exerts anti-obesity protective effects, also in a diet-induced obesity zebrafish model, that might be the result of the restoration of a more healthy state to the organism. These results give also support to the use of zebrafish as a powerful tool for studies on obesity and for testing natural compounds