1: Int Immunopharmacol. 2009 Jun;9(6):767-73. Epub 2009 Mar 13. Dietary supplementation with chitosan derived from mushrooms changes adipocytokine profile in diet-induced obese mice, a phenomenon linked to its lipid-lowering action. Neyrinck AM, Bindels LB, De Backer F, Pachikian BD, Cani PD, Delzenne NM. Unit of Pharmacokinetics, Metabolism, Nutrition and Toxicology, Louvain Drug Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, PMNT7369 73 av. Mounier, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium. Recent data reported that chitosan reduces high-fat (HF) diet-induced obesity in mice without describing the metabolic consequences of such an effect. The aim of this study was to investigate the capacity of chitosan derived from edible mushrooms to modify adipocytokine levels and to assess the relevance of this effect on the development of fat mass, and on glucose and lipid metabolism in obese mice. Mice were fed a HF diet or a HF diet supplemented with 5% fungal chitosan for ten weeks. HF-induced hypertriglyceridaemia, fasting hyperinsulinaemia and fat accumulation in liver, muscle and white adipose tissue (WAT) were reduced after chitosan treatment. The higher lipid content in the caecum following treatment with chitosan suggested that this dietary fiber reduced lipid absorption. We postulated that the lower triglyceridaemia observed upon chitosan treatment could also be the result of the lower FIAF (fasting-induced adipose factor) expression observed in visceral adipose tissue. IL-6, resistin and leptin levels decreased in the serum after chitosan supplementation. We conclude that fungal chitosan counteracts some inflammatory disorders and metabolic alterations occurring in diet-induced obese mice since it decreases feed efficiency, fat mass, adipocytokine secretion and ectopic fat deposition in the liver and the muscle. PMID: 19286482 [PubMed - in process] Related Links Modulation of central leptin sensitivity and energy balance in a rat model of diet-induced obesity. [Diabetes Obes Metab. 2007] PMID:17924866 Dietary L-arginine supplementation reduces white fat gain and enhances skeletal muscle and brown fat masses in diet-induced obese rats. [J Nutr. 2009] PMID:19106310 Diet-induced Obese Mice Are Leptin Insufficient After Weight Reduction. [Obesity (Silver Spring). 2009] PMID:19373220 A mixture of the Salacia reticulata (Kotala himbutu) aqueous extract and cyclodextrin reduces the accumulation of visceral fat mass in mice and rats with high-fat diet-induced obesity. [J Nutr. 2006] PMID:16424124 Up-regulation of muscle uncoupling protein 3 gene expression in mice following high fat diet, dietary vitamin A supplementation and acute retinoic acid-treatment. [Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2003] PMID:12532155