Xanthigen® reduces lipid deposition and improves stress resistance in Caenorhabditis elegans

Abstract

Xanthigen® is a nutraceutical combination of two well-known natural products, brown seaweed extract (rich in fucoxanthin) and pomegranate seed oil (rich in punicic acid), and it has been designed to use in weight management, in conjunction with a calorie restricted diet. In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans Xanthigen® treatment caused a significant reduction in lipid deposition in wild-type N2 (WT-N2) animals but not in sirt-2.1-de ficient strain, which raises the possibility that the prolipolytic or anti-lipogenic effect of Xanthigen® in these animals is mediated through Sirtuin 2.1 activation. This response has been well de scribed for Xanthigen® in cell cultures and other animal models. In addition, Xanthigen® treatment conferred to both strains an in creased resistance to thermal and oxidative stress, which opens the possibility that the effects of Xanthigen® are not mediated solely by Sirtuin 2.1 activation. We therefore explored whether Xanthigen® could activate diverse defence mechanisms such as DAF-16 activation, or GST induction in response to xenobiotics, by using the strains TJ356, CL2070 and CL2166, stably express ing Pdaf-16::GFP, Phsp-16.2::GFP and Pgst-4::GFP, respectively. Xanthigen® treatment provoked neither DAF-16 translocation to the nucleus nor increased expression of HSP16.2 and GST4, which opens the possibility that different mechanisms other than DAF-16 and those involved in xenobiotic responses, are activat ed by Xanthigen® and are capable of conferring to the nematode an increased resistance to thermal or oxidative stress.