Anthocyanin-Biofortified Colored Wheat Prevents High Fat Diet-Induced Alterations in Mice: Nutrigenomics Studies

Effective health-promoting results of either anthocyanins or whole wheat against chronic diseases are well reported. The current study is designed to understand the effect and underlying mechanism of anthocyanins-biofortified whole wheat on high-fat diet (HF)-induced obesity and its comorbidities.

Mice are fed a HFD supplemented with isoenergetic white, purple, or black whole wheat for 12 weeks and analyzed by physiological, biochemical, and nutrigenomics studies (qRT-PCR and RNA-Seq analysis). Black wheat significantly reduces body weight gain and fat pad. Both black and purple wheats reduce total cholesterol, triglyceride, and free fatty acid levels in serum, with the restoration of blood glucose and insulin resistance. Black wheat significantly elevates the expression of enzymes related to fatty acid balancing, β-oxidation, and oxidative stress that supported the biochemical and physiological positive outcomes. Moreover, the transcriptome analysis of adipose and liver tissue reveals activation of multiple pathways and genes related to fatty acid-β oxidation (crat, acca2, lonp2 etc.), antioxidative enzymes (gpx1, sod1, nxnl1 etc.), along with balancing of fatty acid metabolism specifically in black wheat supplemented mice.

Taken together, the results suggest that the incorporation of colored wheat (especially black wheat) in the diet can prevent obesity and related metabolic complications.