Chronic Caffeine Ingestion Down-Regulates Liver and Visceral Adipose Tissue Inflammatory Gene Expression in High-Fat Diet-Induced Obesity

Beverages containing caffeine have an anti-obesity function. Reduction of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) inflammation is considered an important strategy to ameliorate obesity compilations such as insulin resistance. This study aimed to investigate the effect of 8-week caffeine supplementation on the messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of fetuin-A (FetA) in the liver and nuclear factor kappa B (Nf-κb) and toll-like receptor 4 (Tlr4) in the VAT of rats with a high-fat diet (HFD).

A total of 40 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into control, caffeine, HFD, and HFD+caffeine supplement groups. After 2 weeks of acclimatization, the rats were randomly fed with HFD (46% fat) and a normal diet (5% fat) for 8 weeks. The rats in the caffeine groups were gavaged with 6 mg of the caffeine solution per kg of body weight. FetA mRNA of the liver, Nf-κb, and Tlr4 mRNA of VAT were determined using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

The results indicated that FetA mRNA expression and weight gain in HFD+caffeine were significantly reduced compared to the other groups. Nf-κb mRNA expression was significantly higher in the HFD group than in the caffeine groups. No statistically significant differences were found in Tlr4 mRNA expression between the groups.

These findings suggest that consuming caffeine can prevent HFD-induced liver and adipose tissue (AT) inflammation.