Curcumin, Body Fat and Weight Gain
Lee Swanson Research Update
Curcumin, a polyphenol that gives the spice turmeric its yellow color, may reduce body weight gain, suggests new data from a study with mice.
Mice fed a high-fat diet supplemented with curcumin were found to have reduced body weight gain, as well as lower blood cholesterol levels, according to findings published in the Journal of Nutrition.
"The curcumin suppression of angiogenesis in adipose tissue together with its effect on lipid metabolism in adipocytes may contribute to lower body fat and body weight gain," wrote the authors, led by Asma Ejaz from the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University.
Ejaz and her co-workers performed in vitro and in vivo experiments. The effects of different doses of curcumin on the growth (differentiation) of 3T3-L1 fat cells (adipocytes) showed a suppression of differentiation and an increase in programmed cell death (apoptosis).
The in vivo experiments involved feeding mice a high-fat diet (22%) and supplementing the animals with 500 mg of curcumin per kg of diet for 12 weeks. The polyphenol was found to reduce body weight gain and fat mass, without affecting the levels of food intake, wrote the researchers.
Furthermore, a reduction was noted in the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), one of a number of genes associated with angiogenesis (blood vessel formation that is necessary for the growth of fat tissue).
Curcumin was also associated with significantly lower cholesterol levels and a reduction in the expression of peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-gamma), a protein that plays a role in metabolic functions.
Journal of Nutrition 139(5):919-925, 2009