Anti-obesity Effects of Lactobacillus fermentum CQPC05 Isolated from Sichuan Pickle in High-Fat Diet Induced Obese Mice through PPAR-? Signaling Pathway

Sichuan pickle is a traditional fermented food in China, which produced by the spontaneous fermentation of Chinese cabbage. In this study, the anti-obesity effects of a new lactic acid bacterium (Lactobacillus fermentum CQPC05, LF-CQPC05) isolated from Sichuan pickles were assessed in vivo. Obese animal model was established in mice by inducing obesity with high-fat diet. Both serum and tissues were collected from the mice, and then subjected to qPCR and Western blot analyses. The results showed that LF-CQPC05 could decrease the hepatosomatic index, epididymal fat index and perirenal fat index induced by high-fat diet in mice. Moreover, LF-CQPC05 reduced the levels of ALT, AST, TC, TG and LDL-C, and increased the level of HDL-C in both serum samples and liver tissues of obese mice fed with high-fat diet. Pathological observations demonstrated that LF-CQPC05 could alleviate the obesity-induced pathological changes in the liver tissue of mice, and reduce the degree of adipocyte enlargement. The results of qPCR and Western blot analyses further indicated that LF-CQPC05 upregulated the mRNA and protein expression levels of LPL, PPAR-?, CYP7A1 and CPT1A, and downregulated the expression levels of PPAR-? and C/EBP-? in both liver tissue and epididymal adipose tissue. Taken altogether, this study reveals that LF-CQPC05 can effectively inhibit high-fat diet-induced obesity. Its anti-obesity effect is comparable to that of L-carnitine, and is superior to that of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, a common strain used in the dairy industry. Therefore, LF-CQPC05 is a high quality microbial strain with probiotic potential.