Objective. The aim of the study was to screen eight species of berries for their ability to prevent obesity and metabolic abnormalities associated with type 2 diabetes.Methods. C57BL/6J mice were assigned the following diets for 13 weeks: low-fat diet, high-fat diet or high-fat diet supplemented (20%) with lingonberry, blackcurrant, bilberry, raspberry, açai, crowberry, prune or blackberry.Results. The groups receiving a high-fat diet supplemented with lingonberries, blackcurrants, raspberries or bilberries gained less weight and had lower fasting insulin levels than the control group receiving high-fat diet without berries. Lingonberries, and also blackcurrants and bilberries, significantly decreased body fat content, hepatic lipid accumulation, and plasma levels of the inflammatory marker PAI-1, as well as mediated positive effects on glucose homeostasis. The group receiving açai displayed increased weight gain and developed large, steatotic livers. Quercetin glycosides were detected in the lingonberry and the blackcurrant diets.Conclusion. Lingonberries were shown to fully or partially prevent the detrimental metabolic effects induced by high-fat diet. Blackcurrants and bilberries had similar properties, but to a lower degree. We propose that the beneficial metabolic effects of lingonberries could be useful in preventing obesity and related disorders.

Prevotella copri DSM18205^T is a human gut bacterium, suggested as a next‐generation probiotic. To utilize it as such, it is, however, necessary to grow the species in a reproducible manner. Prevotella copri has previously been reported to be highly sensitive to oxygen, and hence difficult to isolate and cultivate. This study presents successful batch cultivation strategies for viable strain inoculations and growth in both serum bottles and a stirred tank bioreactor (STR), without the use of an anaerobic chamber, as long as the cells were kept in the exponential growth phase. A low headspace volume in the STR was important to reach high cell density. P. copri utilized xylose cultivated in Peptone Yeast Xylose medium (PYX medium), resulting in a comparable growth rate and metabolite production as in Peptone Yeast Glucose medium (PYG medium) in batch cultivations at pH 7.2.Up to 5 g/L of the carbon source was consumed, leading to the production of succinic acid, acetic acid, and formic acid, and cell densities (OD_620 nm) in the range 6−7.5. The highest yield of produced succinic acid was 0.63 ± 0.05 g/g glucose in PYG medium cultivations and 0.88 ± 0.06 g/g xylose in PYX medium cultivations.

The liver is a critical organ for regulation of energy homeostasis and fatty liver disease is closely associated with obesity and insulin resistance. We have previously found that lingonberries, blackcurrants and bilberries prevent, whereas açai berries exacerbate, the development of hepatic steatosis and obesity in the high-fat (HF)-fed C57BL/6J mouse model. In this follow-up study, we investigated the mechanisms behind these effects. Genome-wide hepatic gene expression profiling indicates that the protective effects of lingonberries and bilberries are accounted for by several-fold downregulation of genes involved in acute-phase and inflammatory pathways (e.g. Saa1, Cxcl1, Lcn2). In contrast, açai-fed mice exhibit marked upregulation of genes associated with steatosis (e.g. Cfd, Cidea, Crat) and lipid and cholesterol biosynthesis, which is in line with the exacerbation of HF-induced hepatic steatosis in these mice. In silico transcription factor analysis together with immunoblot analysis identified NF-κB, STAT3 and mTOR as upstream regulators involved in mediating the observed transcriptional effects. To gain further insight into mechanisms involved in the gene expression changes, the HELP-tagging assay was used to identify differentially methylated CpG sites. Compared to the HF control group, lingonberries induced genome-wide hypermethylation and specific hypermethylation of Ncor2, encoding the corepressor NCoR/SMRT implicated in the regulation of pathways of metabolic homeostasis and inflammation. We conclude that the beneficial metabolic effects of lingonberries and bilberries are associated with downregulation of inflammatory pathways, whereas for blackcurrants, exerting similar metabolic effects, different mechanisms of action appear to dominate. NF-κB, STAT3 and mTOR are potential targets of the health-promoting effects of berries.

High-fat diets are associated with neuronal and memory dysfunction. Berries may be useful in improving age-related memory deficits in humans, as well as in mice receiving high-fat diets. Emerging research has also demonstrated that brain health and cognitive function may be related to the dynamic changes in the gut microbiota. In this study, the impact of Nordic berries on the brain and the gut microbiota was investigated in middle-aged C57BL/6J mice. The mice were fed high-fat diets (60%E fat) supplemented with freeze-dried powder (6% dwb) of bilberry, lingonberry, cloudberry, blueberry, blackcurrant, and sea buckthorn for 4 months. The results suggest that supplementation with bilberry, blackcurrant, blueberry, lingonberry, and (to some extent) cloudberry has beneficial effects on spatial cognition, as seen by the enhanced performance following the T-maze alternation test, as well as a greater proportion of DCX-expressing cells with prolongation in hippocampus. Furthermore, the proportion of the mucosa-associated symbiotic bacteria Akkermansia muciniphila increased by 4–14 times in the cecal microbiota of mice fed diets supplemented with lingonberry, bilberry, sea buckthorn, and blueberry. These findings demonstrate the potential of Nordic berries to preserve memory and cognitive function, and to induce alterations of the gut microbiota composition.