Transcriptional analyses of the effects of Catharanthus roseus L. medicinal plant extracts on some markers related to obesity and inflammation in 3T3-L1 mouse cell lines

Catharanthus roseus L. ( C. roseus ) is one of the medicinal plants used to treat diabetes. In this study, 3T3-L1 preadipocyte cell lines which are fully differentiated into adipocytes were utilized and these were treated with extracts derived from above ground part of C. roseus. The effect of these extracts on obesity and inflammation markers in cells was examined at the transcriptional level. Adipocyte lipid contents were measured by Oil Red O staining. Analyses, including changes related to adiposity and inflammation, were evaluated by measuring the relative mRNA expression levels of the genes of interest by the Real Time Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) method. The appropriate dose and durations for C. roseus were determined to be 12.5 μg/mL and 24- and 48 h respectively. The expression of the inflammation marker Interleukin-6 (Il-6) was decreased when C. roseus extract was administered to fully differentiated 3T3-L1 cells according to the determined dose and durations. Lipoprotein lipase (Lpl) and Fatty acid synthase (Fasn) gene expressions in fully differentiated cells decreased compared to the control after 24 h however, this effect was not observed after 48 h. Collagen V, has also been shown to be affected by treatment of fully differentiated 3T3-L1 cells with plant extracts in both 24- and 48-h periods.