Chlorophyll Supplementation in Early Life Prevents Diet-Induced Obesity and Modulates Gut Microbiota in Mice

Abstract

Scope: The high rates of overweight and obesity, currently occurring in children, underline the urgent need for preventive strategies in early life before excess weight is gained.

Methods and results: In this study, the alleviating obesity property of chlorophyll supplementation in early life is investigated using a 4-week-old C57BL/6J male mice model with obesity induced by high-fat diet (HFD). The present study finds that chlorophyll supplementation in early life can effectively retard body weight gain, improve glucose tolerance, as well as reduce low-grade inflammation in HFD-fed mice. Consequently, high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA demonstrates that chlorophyll supplementation significantly reversed the HFD-induced gut dysbiosis, as evidenced by the decreased Firmicutes-to-Bacteroidetes ratios as chlorophyll is introduced. Furthermore, in chlorophyll-fed mice, the increased abundance of Blautia and norank_f_Bacteroidales_S24-7_group, and the decreased abundance of Lactococcus and Lactobacillus, bring about the possibility that chlorophyll's alterations to the gut microbiota composition would be the main factors for dietary chlorophyll alleviating obesity-related indexes.

Conclusion: Taken together, these results reveal that the intake of chlorophyll in early life may propel healthy weight management and produce beneficial effects against potential obesity in later life.

Keywords: chlorophyll; early life; gut microbiota; obesity.