Efeitos do extrato aquoso da folha da graviola (annona muricata linn) em modelo experimental de obesidade

Abstract

Obesity is considered an important public health problem and contributes to the increase of chronic diseases. For the treatment of its complications, pharmacological or non-pharmacological alternatives are applied. In Brazil, many plants with medicinal potential are used for this purpose. Soursop (Annona muricata Linn) is the second most cited plant by the brazilian population for the weight loss. In this context, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of aqueous extract of soursop leaf (EAG) in mice treated with high-fat diet. For that, over 12 weeks, 55 male C57BL6 mice were treated with AIN-93M standard diet (n=11) or a high-faf diet (n=44) made with fat to induce obesity and its comorbidities. After this period of time, the animals received gavage treatment with EAG or saline for 12 weeks. The animals treated with the standard diet received saline (SHAM SALINA group), and those treated with the high-fat diet (DLH) were subdivided into 4 groups (n=11): DLH SALINE - Control, EAG 50 mg/kg, EAG 100 mg/kg and EAG 150mg/kg. Body weight and food intake were evaluated and, after euthanasia, blood was collected for biochemical analysis and adipose tissue pads, being the liver, pancreas and epididymal adipose tissue for histological analysis. The glycemic profile was evaluated. The results showed that the animals treated with a high-fat diet had a significant increase in body weight (p≤0.001) in the induction of obesity and, at the end of the treatment with EAG, the group EAG 50 mg/kg presented lower weight gain compared to the SHAM SALINA group (p=0.034), while the EAG group 100 mg/kg had significant body weight loss compared to SHAM SALINA (p=0.003) and DHL SALINA (p=0.034). The EAG was not effective in significantly reducing plasma glucose concentration, however, EAG at doses of 100 mg/kg and 150 mg/kg decreased (p≤0.05) the glycemia in the time of 15 minutes after the administration of glucose in the oral glucose tolerance test, as well as reduced glucose fluctuation. Regarding the lipid profile, no significant effect of EAG on total cholesterol and HDL was observed. However, there was a significant reduction in LDL cholesterol levels in the EAG group 150 mg/kg (p=0.038) compared to the DHL SALINE group, VLDL cholesterol in the EAG 100 mg/kg (p=0.031) and 150 mg/kg (p=0.030), and triglycerides were also observed in the groups treated with EAG 100 mg/kg (p=0.026) and 150 mg/kg (p=0.025) compared to the SHAM group. Furthermore, the atherogen index of the EAG 150 mg/kg group was significantly lower (p=0.025) than the DHL SALINA group. There was no significant reduction in visceral adiposity, however, the extract attenuated lipid accumulation, observed by the reduction in the percentage of the weight of the adipose cushions and the area of the epididymal adipose tissue. In liver histology, the EAG did not significantly alter the hepatic fat accumulation and hepatocyte lesions, however, the balloonization was more frequent in the DHL SALINA group. The histological analysis of the pancreas also did not show any difference between the groups. It is concluded that in the studied model the EAG was effective in the fight against obesity and its metabolic changes.