β-Elemene Suppresses Obesity-Induced Imbalance in the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis

• Main Authors: Yingyu Zhou, Wanyi Qiu, Yimei Wang, Rong Wang, Tomohiro Takano, Xuyang Li, Zhangliang Zhu, Haruyo Nakajima-Adachi, Masaru Tanokura, Satoshi Hachimura, Takuya Miyakawa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-06-01
• Series: Biomedicines
• Subjects: obesity; inflammation; central nervous system; gut bacteria; pearson correlations
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9059/9/7/704

As a kind of metabolically triggered inflammation, obesity influences the interplay between the central nervous system and the enteral environment. The present study showed that β-elemene, which is contained in various plant substances, had effects on recovering the changes in metabolites occurring in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese C57BL/6 male mice brains, especially in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus (HIP). β-elemene also partially reversed HFD-induced changes in the composition and contents of mouse gut bacteria. Furthermore, we evaluated the interaction between cerebral metabolites and intestinal microbiota via Pearson correlations. The prediction results suggested that <i>Firmicutes</i> were possibly controlled by neuron integrity, cerebral inflammation, and neurotransmitters, and <i>Bacteroidetes</i> in mouse intestines might be related to cerebral aerobic respiration and the glucose cycle. Such results also implied that <i>Actinobacteria</i> probably affected cerebral energy metabolism. These findings suggested that β-elemene has regulatory effects on the imbalanced microbiota-gut-brain axis caused by obesity and, therefore, would contribute to the future study in on the interplay between cerebral metabolites from different brain regions and the intestinal microbiota of mice.