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Introduction and aims: Obesity is a multifactorial condition with high health risk, associated with important chronic disorders such as diabetes, dyslipidemia, and cardiovascular dysfunction. Citrus aurantium L. (C. aurantium) is a medicinal plant, and its active component, synephrine, a ß-3 adrenergic agonist, can be used for weight loss. We investigated the effects of C. aurantium and synephrine in obese adolescent mice programmed by early postnatal overfeeding. Methods: Three days after birth, male Swiss mice were divided into a small litter (SL) group (3 pups) and a normal litter (NL) group (9 pups). At 30 days old, SL and NL mice were treated with C. aurantium standardized to 6% synephrine, C. aurantium with 30% synephrine, isolated synephrine, or vehicle for 19 days. Results: The SL group had a higher body weight than the NL group. Heart rate and blood pressure were not elevated. The SL group had hyperleptinemia and central obesity that were normalized by C. aurantium and synephrine. In brown adipose tissue, the SL group showed a higher lipid droplet sectional area, less nuclei, a reduction in thermogenesis markers related to thermogenesis (UCP-1, PRDM16, PGC-1α and PPARg), and mitochondrial disfunction. C. aurantium and synephrine treatment normalized these parameters. Conclusion: Our data indicates that the treatment with C. aurantium and synephrine could be a promising alternative for the control of some obesity dysfunction, such as improvement of brown adipose tissue dysfunction and leptinemia.
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OBJECTIVES: We aimed to investigate the effect of insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance status at baseline on longitudinal body mass index, and the possible effect modification by sex. METHODS: This is a secondary analysis of a randomized intervention community trial, in which a subgroup of 84 adolescents, aged between 10 and 12 years, were analyzed. Body weight, height, and body mass index (BMI) were determined before and after 8 months of follow-up. Glucose and serum insulin were examined at baseline and IR was defined based on the homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), with a cutoff >2.5 for both genders. Linear mixed-effects models were performed to evaluate the influence of HOMA-IR at baseline on BMI changes over time. Models were adjusted for age, pubertal stage, and stratified by sex. RESULTS: The sample comprised 65.4% of girls and the prevalence of overweight/obesity was 54.7% among girls and 50.0% among boys. The overall prevalence of IR was 75.3%, of which 60.7% for boys and 83.0% for girls. We found an interaction effect by sex (p = .004) for HOMA-IR as a continuous variable, with a decreased BMI rate of change among boys (ß = -0.13; p = .03) but not for girls (ß = +0.03; p = .36). Longitudinal BMI changes considering IR status at baseline (IR vs. non-IR) did not demonstrate any statistically significant difference for both boys (-0.1 vs. +0.4; p = .28) and girls (+0.7 vs. +1.0; p = .44). CONCLUSION: Increased HOMA-IR values at baseline were associated with greater BMI reduction over time among boys but not girls, with no influence of IR status.
