Spexin is a novel peptide implicated in obesity and energy homeostasis. The objective of the current
study was to evaluate the effect of spexin on blood pressure, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia in
rats with metabolic syndrome (MS) induced by high-fructose diet (HFD) and the possible underlying
mechanism. Forty adult male rats were randomly assigned into four equal groups; Control, Spexin,
HFD and HFD þ spexin. Induction of the MS with HFD was associated with increased body mass index,
elevated blood pressure, blood glucose, insulin, uric acid, advanced glycation end products and insulin
resistance, interlekin-6, tumour necrosis factor-alpha together with dyslipidemia, low-serum spexin,
peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors-gamma (PPAR-Ç) and adenosine monophosphate-activated
protein kinase (AMPK). Spexin attenuated MS-induced deleterious effects which can be attributed to
activation of PPAR-Ç and AMPK as well as inhibiting inflammation. These findings indicate that spexin
could be a beneficial complementary agent for metabolic syndrome treatment |
