Obesity is a global health problem characterized by a high body mass index (BMI), which increases the risk of many physical and mental diseases, and greatly reduces the quality of life and life span of human beings. As a natural oligosaccharide, chitosan oligosaccharide (cos) has high water solubility, low viscosity, and is easily absorbed through the intestinal epithelium. Many studies have proposed COS as a feasible solution for the development of anti-obesity and low-cholesterol drugs. Previous studies have shown that COS can significantly reduce the weight gain of experimental animals, and effectively inhibit the hypertrophy and hyperplasia of adipose tissue, lower cholesterol and improve serum lipid levels.
In the experiment, 24 healthy male Kunming mice (Kunming, KM; 16-18 g; 4 weeks) were selected, and the mice were reared under standard conditions: 21±2°C, alternate day and night for twelve hours, and the relative humidity was 45%- 65%. After one week of adaptive feeding, the mice were randomly divided into three groups (8 in each group). (1) Normal fat diet (NF) group, fed NF for 8 weeks; (2) High-fat diet (HFD) group, fed HFD for 8 weeks; (3) COS group, fed HFD for 8 weeks, fed 350 4 weeks after the experiment mg/kg COS. During the experiment, the mice have free access to food and water. The body weight of the mice was recorded every week, and the energy intake level of each group was recorded.
Experimental results show that: Chitooligosaccharides can significantly reduce the weight of mice fed high-fat diet, the weight of liver and epididymal fat, and reduce the levels of serum triglycerides and cholesterol. Chitosan oligosaccharide reduces the size of fat cells, reduces liver steatosis, and has liver protection and anti-obesity effects. Chitooligosaccharides showed good anti-obesity activity in mouse experiments.