Chitosan oligosaccharide (COS) is a variety of oligosaccharides, and it is also the only abundant basic amino oligosaccharide in natural polysaccharides. Chitosan oligosaccharide is a low molecular weight product of chitosan after enzymatic degradation. It has many biological effects, such as lipid-lowering, antioxidant and immune regulation. Previous studies have shown that chitosan oligosaccharide has a certain effect on fat synthesis, but the effect of chitosan oligosaccharide on milk fat synthesis of bovine mammary epithelial cells (BMECs) has not been studied. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate chitosan oligosaccharide's effect on milk fat synthesis in bovine mammary epithelial cells and explore the underlying mechanism. We treated bovine mammary epithelial cells with different concentrations of chitosan oligosaccharide (0, 100, 150, 200, 400 and 800 μg/mL) for 24 h, 36 h and 48 h respectively. To assess the effect of chitosan oligosaccharide on bovine mammary epithelial cells and determine the concentration and time for chitosan oligosaccharide treatment on cells, several in vitro cellular experiments, including on cell viability, cycle and proliferation were carried out. The results highlighted that chitosan oligosaccharide (100, 150 μg/mL) significantly promoted cell viability, cycle and proliferation, increased intracellular cholesterol content, and reduced intracellular triglyceride and non-esterified fatty acids content. Under the stimulation of chitosan oligosaccharide, the expression of genes downstream of Phosphorylated AMP-activated protein kinase (P-AMPK) and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling pathway changed, increasing the expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα) and hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL), but the expression of sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1c (SREBP1) and its downstream target gene stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD1) decreased. In conclusion, these results suggest that chitosan oligosaccharide may inhibit milk fat synthesis in bovine mammary epithelial cells by activating the AMP-activated protein kinase signaling pathway, promoting the oxidative decomposition of fatty acids and inhibiting fatty acid synthesis.
Keywords: AMPK signalling pathway; bovine mammary epithelial cells; chitosan oligosaccharide; milk fat synthesis.