Pterostilbene, resveratrol, berries, fat accumulation and obesity

Obesity, a metabolic disease characterised by excessive accumulation of fat in the body, is closely related to many diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular, dyslipidemia, hypertension, sleep apnea and overall ageing. As a result, obesity has become a global public health problem and there is a constant search for natural compounds to prevent or reduce obesity.

Adipogenesis, i.e. the growth of new fat cells, is accompanied by fat accumulation and consequent adipocyte hypertrophy (fat cell enlargement).

Pterostilbene, a small molecular weight stilbenoid compound chemically related to resveratrol and found predominantly in black grapes, blueberries and other berries, has important anti-adipogenic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic and anticancer properties.

Resveratrol is already widely known for its anti-ageing and anti-obesity properties and pterostilbene (3',5'-dimethoxy-resveratrol), being a more stable and more absorbable form of resveratrol, shows much more promise in fighting both ageing and fat accumulation.

Pterostilbene and fat cells

In a recently published study pterostilbene was found to have the following effects in adipocytes (fat cells):

• Pterostilbene inhibits adipocyte proliferation and growth (in simple terms, with pterostilbene fat cells stop growing both in numbers and in size)

• Pterostilbene reduces adipocyte lipid accumulation (in simple terms, with pterostilbene fat cells do not accumulate fat inside them)

• Pterostilbene, at high concentrations, induces apoptosis in differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes (in simple terms, with pterostilbene mature fat cells die off)

• Pterostilbene preserves fibroblastic morphology in preadipocytes (in simple terms, with pterostilbene baby fat cells grow into a collagen cell form rather than into a full-blown fat cell form)

According to the study authors, “All our results show that PTS can be considered to have a significant role in the treatment and prevention of obesity by reducing the differentiation of preadipocytes with its anti-adipogenic and anti-obesogenic effect”.

Pterostilbene against obesity and cellulite

Based on the above data, pterostilbene shows great promise both against overweight and obesity.

Given that runaway lipid accumulation, adipocyte proliferation and adipocyte growth in the deeper skin layer (hypodermis) are hallmarks of cellulite, it is obvious that pterostilbene is an important anti-cellulite molecule.

Hence our constant recommendation on this website to consume a high amount of berry fruits, vegetable and oily fish, in addition to exercising and avoiding sugar and fried food, in order to prevent and reduce cellulite.

Pterostilbene in fruits, supplements and anti-ageing / anti-cellulite creams

As mentioned above, pterostilbene is primarily found in berry fruits, grapes and grape vine leaves. Based on the type of blueberry ingested, the content of pterostilbene is estimated to range from 25mg to 130mg per 250 gram of fruit serving.

Pterostilbene is also available in supplement form, at doses from 25-500mg per capsule. If we assume 100mg/400g of blueberries is the average, it makes much more sense to eat 400g of blueberries, which also contain fibre and multiple other polyphenols / antioxidants, than consume 100mg pterostilbene capsules.

Due to its small size below 500 Dalton, pterostilbene is an ideal ingredient in anti-cellulite and anti-ageing formulations. However, at the moment there is no known cream that contains any significant amount of pterostilbene.

Antiadipogenic and antiobesogenic effects of pterostilbene in 3T3-L1 preadipocyte models

• Research paper link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37529167

• Abstract: Since obesity causes at least 2.8 million death each year and is a major risk factor for many diseases, it is critical to evaluate alternative treatment approaches. In this context, studies on the research of natural product-based therapeutics in the fight against obesity are increasing. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the antiadipogenic and antiobesogenic efficacy of pterostilbene a natural phenolic compound in 3T3-L1 cells. The mature 3T3-L1 adipocytes were exposed to pterostilbene at different concentrations and half-maximum inhibitory concentrations (IC50) were determined by MTT assay. Oil-Red-O staining was applied to determine lipid accumulation. Phase contrast microscopy, Giemsa, F-actin and DAPI staining were applied to examine the efficacy of pterostilbene on the morphology of 3T3-L1 adipocyte cells. Moreover, expressions of adinopectin and glucose transporter-4 (Glut-4) in relation to insulin resistance were evaluated using immunofluorescent staining and qRT-PCR. Pterostilbene caused no significant cytotoxicity towards preadipocytes at concentrations ≤7.5 -M and the percentage of viable cells remained above about 86% for 24 h, 48 h and 72 h (p > 0.05). Therefore, pterostilbene treatment at 5 and 7.5 -M was used in the subsequent experiments as safe dosages. In addition, it was observed that pterostilbene treatment reduced lipid accumulation in adipocyte differentiation. Adipocytes treated with a dose of 7.5 -M for 14 days showed less intense lipid deposition and a more spindle-like morphology compared to the adipocytes treated with a dose of 5 -M. Especially on the 14th day, actin filaments were filamentous in adipocytes treated with pterostilbene 7.5 -M compared to the adipocytes treated with a dose of 5 -M; the filaments were similarly oriented as in preadipocytes, and chromatin condensation was observed to be quite high. Our data suggests that the pterostilbene supplementation may help weight control and the antiadipogenic and that antiobesogenic activity is mediated in part by reduction of lipid accumulation and induction of Glut-4 and Adiponectin levels.

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