Bidirectional fermentation of Tremella fuciformis and Acanthopanax trifoliatus alleviates lipid accumulation in LO2 cells.

Authors

Yuxiao Wu, Sini Chen, Yueqiu Chen, Qian Yu, Jiayin Li, Yufang Pan, Lin Zhou

Published in

Food & function. Aug 25, 2026. Epub Aug 25, 2026.

Abstract

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is a prevalent metabolic disorder with limited intervention. This study developed a bidirectional fermentation system combining Tremella fuciformis and Acanthopanax trifoliatus (TF-AT) to enhance metabolite biotransformation and bioactivity. TF-AT showed stronger lipid-lowering effects than the unfermented controls in the free fatty acid (FFA)-induced human normal hepatocyte cell line (LO2 cells). Network pharmacology and targeted metabolomics were used to identify key phenolic metabolites and potential signaling pathways. The TF-AT fermentation product was fractionated into free phenolic fractions (TF-AT-1-TF-AT-6) and a crude polysaccharide fraction (TF-AT-PS). In vitro assays were performed in FFA-induced LO2 cells to assess lipid accumulation, cell viability, triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), and mRNA expression of MAPK pathway-related genes. Ten phenolic metabolites, including quercetin, myricetin, and luteolin, were identified, and the MAPK pathway was predicted as a potential signaling pathway associated with TF-AT activity. TF-AT, TF-AT-1, and TF-AT-PS significantly improved the cell viability, reduced lipid droplets, and lowered TG and TC levels in FFA-induced LO2 cells, suggesting that bidirectional fermentation contributed to enhanced bioactivity. qPCR analysis showed that these effects were accompanied by downregulation of JNK1, ASK1, p38, ELK-1, and p53 mRNA, indicating the possible involvement of MAPK/JNK/p38-related transcriptional responses. Overall, TF-AT attenuated FFA-induced lipid accumulation in LO2 cells and may serve as a promising fermented multi-component functional ingredient for hepatic steatosis-related intervention, although further protein-level and in vivo validation is required.

PMID:
42640247
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 25 Aug 2026.

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