Lycopene's Role in Mitigating Obesity‐Induced Cardiac Remodeling: Insights Into Inflammatory and MMP‐2 Pathways

TL;DR

This study shows that lycopene can protect the heart from obesity-related damage by reducing inflammation and preventing collagen breakdown.

Contribution

The study demonstrates lycopene's novel cardioprotective effects in obesity-induced cardiac remodeling through anti-inflammatory and MMP-2 inhibition mechanisms.

Findings

Lycopene reversed insulin resistance and improved systolic and diastolic cardiac function in obese rats.

Lycopene reduced inflammatory markers like TNF-α, IL-6, NF-κB, and TLR-4 in the heart.

Lycopene inhibited MMP-2 activation and enhanced TIMP-2 and type I collagen expression, preserving myocardial structure.

Abstract

Obesity, characterized by chronic low‐grade inflammation, promotes cardiac structural and functional abnormalities. This study evaluated the therapeutic potential of lycopene in attenuating obesity‐induced cardiac remodeling, based on its antioxidant and anti‐inflammatory properties and its ability to inhibit matrix metalloproteinase‐2 (MMP‐2) activation, thereby preserving myocardial collagen integrity. Male Wistar rats were fed a high‐sugar, high‐fat (HSF) diet to induce obesity and cardiac remodeling. After the onset of cardiac dysfunction, animals received lycopene supplementation (10 mg/kg/day) for 10 weeks. The HSF diet caused metabolic disturbances, including hypertension, increased adiposity, and insulin resistance, accompanied by myocardial remodeling, inflammation, and elevated MMP‐2 activity. Lycopene supplementation reversed insulin resistance, mitigated myocardial remodeling, and improved both systolic and diastolic cardiac function. It also reduced inflammatory markers (TNF‐α, IL‐6, NF‐κB, TLR‐4), decreased MMP‐2 activation, and enhanced TIMP‐2 and type I collagen expression. Lycopene demonstrated cardioprotective and anti‐inflammatory effects in obesity‐induced cardiac remodeling. By targeting inflammation and extracellular matrix degradation, lycopene may serve as an effective adjunctive therapeutic approach for preventing or treating obesity‐related cardiac disorders.

A. Consumption of a highsugar‐fat diet causes excess nutrients, hypertrophy and hyperplasia of adipocytes, causing obesity. Obesity leads to increased inflammatory levels in the heart, which stimulates greater activation of Metalloproteinase‐2 (MMP‐2), which has collagenolytic activity, degrading the collagen network in the heart, ultimately causing pathological cardiac remodeling, with systolic and diastolic dysfunction. B. Lycopene supplementation in obese individuals rat attenuates inflammation, MMP‐2 activity, and collagen degradation in the heart, and consequently cardiac remodeling, improving systolic and diastolic function.

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