Identification of a nutrient-sensing transcriptional network in monocytes by using inbred rat models on a cafeteria diet.

Obesity has reached pandemic levels worldwide. The current models of diet-induced obesity in rodents use predominantly high-fat based diets that do not take into account the consumption of variety of highly palatable, energy-dense foods that are prevalent in Western society. We and others have shown that the cafeteria (CAF) diet is a robust and reproducible model of human metabolic syndrome with tissue inflammation in the rat.

Grape-seed procyanidins modulate inflammation on human differentiated adipocytes in vitro.

Flavonoids are functional constituents of many fruits and vegetables. Procyanidins are flavonoids with an oligomeric structure, and it has been shown that they can improve the pathological oxidative state of a diabetic situation. To evaluate whether procyanidins can modulate inflammation, an event strongly associated with obesity, diabetes and insulin resistance states, we used human adipocytes (SGBS) and macrophage-like (THP-1) cell lines and administered an extract of grape-seed procyanidins (GSPE).