Anti-obesity Action of Fermented Barley Extracts with Lactobacillus plantarum dy-1 and Associated MicroRNA Expression in High-fat Diet-induced Obese Rats

To further explore associated effects of Lactobacillus plantarum dy-1 (LFBE) on obesity and lipid metabolism at the gene expression level, the expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) was investigated in the liver of high-fat diet (HFD) induced obese rats. Three groups of animal models were established. Changes in miRNA expression in the liver of each group were analyzed by microarray and RT-qPCR, complemented by bioinformatics. Palmitate-induced hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells were used as a model to validate the test. LFBE treatment groups and HFD groups were observed to be distinctly different with respect to rates of increase in body weight and body fat percentage and triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (TC) levels in serum and liver. In addition, the LFBE group showed upregulation of ten miRNAs and downregulation of five miRNAs in the liver. Downregulation of miR-34a and miR-212 was observed in the livers of the LFBE group. Gene ontology and kyoto encyelopedia of geues and genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis showed that possible target genes of the deregulated miRNAs were significantly enriched in the adrenergic and HIF-1 signaling pathways. These results demonstrate that LFBE might regulate the expression of miRNAs in order to inhibit obesity and fatty liver.