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Updated: Jun 5, 2026
Isolation, Characterization, and Purification of Macrophages from Tissues Affected by Obesity-related Inflammation
Published on: April 3, 2017
Pomegranate juice protects macrophages from triglyceride accumulation: inhibitory effect on DGAT1 activity and on
Mira Rosenblat1, Michael Aviram
1The Lipid Research Laboratory, Technion Faculty of Medicine, The Rappaport Family Institute for Research in the Medical Sciences, Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel.
Background/Aims:
To analyze the effects of pomegranate juice (PJ) and punicalagin on macrophage triglyceride metabolism.
Methods:
Triglyceride metabolism was analyzed in PJ- or punicalagin-treated J774A.1 macrophages or in mouse peritoneal macrophages (MPM) harvested from C57BL/6 mice or from paraoxonase 2 (PON2)-deficient mice.
Results:
PJ (0-50 μM) significantly and dose-dependently decreased the triglyceride content and triglyceride biosynthesis rate in J774A.1 macrophages or in C57BL/6 MPM by about 30%. Similarly, punicalagin, the major PJ polyphenol, inhibited the MPM triglyceride biosynthesis rate by 40%. The triglyceride hydrolytic rate, however, was not significantly affected by PJ or punicalagin. The activity of diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1; the rate-limiting enzyme in triglyceride biosynthesis) was significantly inhibited, by 54%, in C57BL/6 MPM that were treated with 50 μM PJ or punicalagin, with no significant effect on DGAT1 mRNA or protein expression. Both PJ and punicalagin increased (1.7-fold) MPM PON2 mRNA expression, and PON2 was previously shown to inhibit DGAT1 activity. However, the addition of PJ or punicalagin (50 μM) to microsomes from PON2-deficient MPM still resulted in a significant reduction (50-58%) in DGAT1 activity.
Conclusions:
We conclude that the inhibitory effect of PJ on triglyceride biosynthesis could be attributed to a direct effect of PJ on DGAT1 activity.
