Arabinoxylan activates lipid catabolism and alleviates liver damage in rats induced by high-fat diet

Arabinoxylan was thought to have the potential to change lipid metabolism and redox homeostasis in human and animal. However, the effect of arabinoxylan on the liver damage induced by high-fat diet needs further exploiting.Six-weeks-old 30 male Sprague-Dawley Rats were assigned randomly to three groups (n = 10 per group), i.e. a control diet (CON) group, a high-fat diet (HF) group and a high-fat diet supplemented with arabinoxylan (6% AX, HF-AX) group. Results showed that final body weight and liver weight were similar in CON group and HF-AX group, but higher in the HF group. In serum, the HF-AX group showed lower triglyceride concentrations than did the HF group. In liver, higher lipoprotein lipase, hepatic lipase, total lipase, and acyl-CoA oxidase activities and lower triglyceride and cholesterol level were observed in the HF-AX group than in the HF group. For the redox homeostasis, arabinoxylan supplemented in HF increased T-SOD activity and GSH-PX activity and reduced MDA + 4-HNE level in liver and/or compared with those in the HF group. Lipid droplets and liver cell damage were observed in the HF group compared with the CON and HF-AX groups.Arabinoxylan could improve lipid metabolic disorder and alleviate liver damage in rats induced by high-fat diet via activating lipid catabolism and suppressing lipid peroxidation. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.