2023 Volume 2023 Issue 33 Pages 330-334
Peptides, which are products of protein digestion, have been reported to have various functions in recent years. In this study, we focused on the tripeptide Phe-Leu-Val derived from soybean proteins, which has been reported to have an anti-inflammatory effect on obese adipose tissue, and investigated its effect on mitochondria in 3T3-L1 adipocytes to clarify the mechanism of the tripeptide Phe-Leu-Val anti-inflammatory effect and the role of mitochondria in inflammatory changes in adipocytes.
The 3T3-L1 cells, which are the model of white adipocytes, were cultured in 0~10 μM of Phe-Leu-Val until 30th days after adipogenesis. The lipid droplets and mitochondria in the cells were observed by fluorescent microscopic analysis and the mRNA expression of mitochondria-related proteins was measured. There was no significant difference in the size of lipid droplets and their formation process in Phe-Leu-Val-treated cells compared to control cells cultured without Phe-Leu-Val. On the contrary, the fluorescence intensity of mitochondria in the Phe-Leu-Val-treated cells was higher than the control cells, and mitochondrial division and dispersion throughout whole cells observed with the maturation of lipid droplets in the control cells, were not observed in the Phe-Leu-Val-treated cells. These results suggest that Phe-Leu-Val may have the effect of maintaining high mitochondrial energy metabolism, and may exert its anti-inflammatory effect by suppressing mitochondrial energy metabolism.
