Aphanizomenon flos aquae (AFA) extract intake accelerates the reversion of the metabolic dysfunctions in mice with diet-induced obesity

The Aphanizomenon flos aquae (AFA) is a microalga rich in substances with strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Increasing scientific evidence show AFA's ability to ameliorate chronic diseases but data on obesity-related dysmetabolisms are unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of an AFA extract, KlamExtra, to accelerate the reversion of the obesity-metabolic dysfunctions in High Fat diet (HFD)-obese mice. For this purpose, we investigated the effects of switching HFD fed obese mice back to a standard diet (STD), alone or in combination with KlamExtra (STA+AFA). The STD supplemented with KlamExtra resulted in marked reductions in body weight, fasting glycaemia, insulin sensitivity, and HOMA index when compared to the obese control and obese mice fed only STD. Moreover, AFA diet strongly ameliorated cholesterol plasma levels and hepatic steatosis in comparison with obese mice fed only STD. The livers of STD+AFA mice showed a significant reduction of HFD-induced overexpression of FAS, SCD1, and SREBP-1c genes and a strong decrease of NfkB, TNF-?, IL-10 protein levels, compared to the livers of obese mice fed STD. In conclusion, the present results show that AFA supplementation is able to accelerate the STD-induced reversion of insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis by positively modulating the expression of hepatic genes and proteins linked to lipid metabolism and inflammation.