Protective effect of protein hydrolysates from Litopenaeus vannamei waste on oxidative status, glucose regulation, and autophagy genes in non- alcoholic fatty liver disease in Wistar rats

Objective(s): The effects of protein hydrolysates (FP) from Litopenaeus vannamei on oxidative stress, and autophagy gene expression was investigated in the NAFLD-induced rats.  Materials and Methods: For this purpose, twenty-four male rats were divided into four groups: Control, High-fat diet (HFD), FP20+HFD, and FP300+HFD (20 and 300 mg FP /kg rat body weight) and fed for 70 days. Results: The results indicated that the rat body and relative weight of the liver were not affected by experimental treatments (P 0.05) although the highest relative weight of the liver was observed in HFD treatment. The highest and lowest values for antioxidant enzymes and MDA concentration were observed in FP treatments (P 0.05). Also, the results showed that FP significantly decreased liver enzymes (ALT, AST) in the liver in comparison with HFD treatment (P 0.05). Plasma biochemical indices were investigated and the lowest amylase, ALP, fasting glucose, insulin, HOMA-IR, triglycerides, cholesterol, and inflammation cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6) were seen in the FP treatments which had a significant difference with HFD (P 0.05). Autophagy gene expression in the liver cells was affected by experimental diets and the lowest expression of Beclin-1 and Atg7 was observed in HFD and FP300 treatments. Interestingly, the highest expression of LC3-ɪ and P62 was seen in HFD and FP treatments, not in the control. Conclusion: Overall, the results of this experiment indicated that FPs extracted from Whiteleg shrimp at 50 °C improve the oxidative status, glucose metabolism, and autophagy gene expression and could be used as a useful nutritional strategy in fatty liver prevention.