Dietary acetic acid suppress high-fat diet-induced obesity in mice by altering taurine conjugated bile acids metabolism

Vinegar is widely used in Chinese diet as a traditional condiment, and its functional component acetic acid has been proposed to prevent obesity, while its mechanism is still unclear. Bile acids (BAs) have been reported to have a protective effect on obesity. This study demonstrated that high-fat diet induced obesity (DIO) seriously disturbed BAs balance by significantly decreasing hepatic BAs synthesis and increasing fecal BAs excretion. However, acetate supplemented in the high-fat diet can restore BAs balance by mainly promoting hepatic taurine conjugated BAs (tauro-BAs) synthesis and decreasing fecal tauro-BAs excretion. The tauro-BAs, as the antagonists, inhibited the intestinal-liver farnesoid X receptor (FXR)-fibroblast growth factor 15 (FGF15)-FGF receptor 4 (FGFR4) signaling pathway, and negatively regulated the production of hepatic BAs. Present study provided important clues for further investigation of the mechanism of acetic acid inhibiting DIO.