Effect of Pomegranate Peel Extract and Ellagic Acid on Human Adipose-derived Cells Proliferation and Differentiation

Obesity has become an epidemic in the world and can cause diseases related to obesity, and the production of obesity is closely related to the proliferation and differentiation of adipocytes. In this study, MTT method was used to determine the inhibitory activity of pomegranate peel extract (PoPE) and Ellagic acid(EA) on the proliferation of human adipose-derived stem cells(hADSCs) during fusion.The morphological changes and the relative content of triglycerides of differentiated hADSCs were observed by Oil Red-O staining. Studies have shown that with the increase of the concentration of PoPE and EA, the proliferation and differentiation of hADSCs have a dose-effect inhibitory effect. When the concentration of PoPE was 25 μg·mL^-1, the inhibition rates of proliferation and differentiation on hADSCs were 31.87% and 45.8%, respectively. When the concentration of EA was 4.5 μg·mL^-1, the inhibition rates on proliferation and differentiation of hADSCs were 47.23% and 4.96%, respectively. It indicated that the PoPE and EA can effectively inhibit the proliferation and differentiation of hADSCs into mature adipocytes and reduce the accumulation of triglycerides. The EA has a stronger inhibitory effect than the PoPE, suggesting that EA in pomegranate plays a potential role on obesity prevention.