Background & Aims
Obesity and associated metabolic syndrome have quickly become a pandemic and a major
detriment to global human health. The presence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
(NAFLD; hepatosteatosis) in obesity has been linked to the worsening of the metabolic
syndrome, including the development of insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease.
Currently, there are few options to treat NAFLD, including life style changes and
insulin sensitizers. Recent evidence suggests that the cannabinoids Δ9-tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV) and cannabidiol (CBD) improve insulin sensitivity;
we aimed at studying their effects on lipid levels.
Methods
The effects of THCV and CBD on lipid levels were examined in a variety of in vitro and in vivo systems, with special emphasis on models of hepatosteatosis. Transcriptional, post-translational
and metabolomic changes were assayed.
Results
THCV and CBD directly reduce accumulated lipid levels in vitro in a hepatosteatosis model and adipocytes. Nuclear magnetic resonance- (NMR) based
metabolomics confirmed these results and further identified specific metabolic changes
in THCV and CBD-treated hepatocytes. Treatment also induced post-translational changes
in a variety of proteins such as CREB, PRAS40, AMPKa2 and several STATs indicating
increased lipid metabolism and, possibly, mitochondrial activity. These results are
supported by in vivo data from zebrafish and obese mice indicating that these cannabinoids are able to
increase yolk lipid mobilization and inhibit the development of hepatosteatosis respectively.
Conclusions
Our results suggest that THCV and CBD might be used as new therapeutic agents for
the pharmacological treatment of obesity- and metabolic syndrome-related NAFLD/hepatosteatosis.
Graphical abstract
Graphical Abstract
Abbreviations:
NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease), NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance), THCV (Δ9-tetrahydrocannabivarin), CBD (cannabidiol), AEA (anandamide), 2-AG (2-arachidonoylglycerol), CB1/2 (Cannabinoid receptor 1/2), THC (Δ9-tetra-hydrocannabinol), HHL-5 (human hepatocyte line-5), OA (oleic acid), ECS (endocannabinoid system), TG (triglyceride), TRPV1 (transient receptor potential vanilloid type-1), Cho (Choline), PC (phosphocholine), FA (fatty acid), GSH (glutathione), ATP (adenine triphosphate), NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide), FChol (free cholesterol), GK (Glycerol kinase), AMPK (5′-AMP-activated protein kinase), OPLS-DA (Orthogonal Projection to Latent Structure Discriminant Analysis)Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 13, 2015
Accepted:
January 1,
2015
Received in revised form:
December 5,
2014
Received:
October 3,
2014
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 Published by Elsevier Inc.
