Nutritional activities of luteolin in obesity and associated metabolic diseases: an eye on adipose tissues

Abstract

Obesity is characterized by excessive body fat accumulation and is a high-risk factor for metabolic comorbidities, including type 2 diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and cardiovascular disease. In lean individuals, adipose tissue (AT) is not only an important regulatory organ for energy storage and metabolism, but also an indispensable immune and endocrine organ. The sustained energy imbalance induces adipocyte hypotrophy and hyperplasia as well as AT remodeling, accompanied by chronic low-grade inflammation and adipocytes dysfunction in AT, ultimately leading to systemic insulin resistance and ectopic lipid deposition. Luteolin is a natural flavonoid widely distributed in fruits and vegetables and possesses multifold biological activities, such as antioxidant, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory activities. Diet supplementation of this flavonoid has been reported to inhibit AT lipogenesis and inflammation as well as the ectopic lipid deposition, increase AT thermogenesis and systemic energy expenditure, and finally improve obesity and associated metabolic diseases. The purpose of this review is to reveal the nutritional activities of luteolin in obesity and its complications with emphasis on its action on AT energy metabolism, immunoregulation, and endocrine intervention.

Keywords:

• Adipose tissue
• endocrine intervention
• energy metabolism
• luteolin
• immunoregulation

Authors contributions

Z.Z. wrote the draft manuscript. J.W. helped to generate the figures. Y.L. and J.C. helped to revise the manuscript. J.L. and X.Z. supervised the work and revised the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32200630 to XZ, 32070757 to JL), the Industrial Innovation Funds for Linquan County-Hefei University of Technology (JZ2018QTXM0553 to JL), the University Synergy Innovation Program of Anhui Province (GXXT-2019-026 to JL), andpara the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (13020-03712022006 to XZ).