ArticlePloS one2013
Momordica charantia (Bitter Melon) reduces obesity-associated macrophage and mast cell infiltration as well as inflammatory cytokine expression in adipose tissues.
Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 88 citations in OpenAlex.
- The metabolic effect ofFrontiers in nutrition · 2023Pooled it
- An Ethnobotanical Survey and Pharmacological and Toxicity Review of Medicinal Plants Used in the Management of Obesity in the North Central Zone of Nigeria.Journal of obesity · 2025Article
- Multidimensional Uses of Bitter Melon (Current organic synthesis · 2025Review
- Research progress in the treatment of an immune system disease-type 1 diabetes-by regulating the intestinal flora with Chinese medicine and food homologous drugs.Bioscience of microbiota, food and health · 2024Review
- Promising roles ofJournal of agriculture and food research · 2023Article
- Antioxidant Activities of Natural Compounds from Caribbean Plants to Enhance Diabetic Wound Healing.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Low-Molecular-Mass Fragments of Collagen Improve Parameters Related to Mass and Inflammation of the Adipose Tissue in the Obese Rat.Food technology and biotechnology · 2023Article
- Article
- Four cucurbitane glycosides taimordisins A-D with novel furopyranone skeletons isolated from the fruits ofFood chemistry: X · 2022Article
- Transcriptome and metabolome changes induced by bitter melon (Journal of traditional and complementary medicine · 2022Article
- Anti-Inflammatory, Antidiabetic Properties and In Silico Modeling of Cucurbitane-Type Triterpene Glycosides from Fruits of an Indian Cultivar ofMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- JD419, aFrontiers in microbiology · 2021Article
- The Effect ofEvidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2021Review
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- Inhibiting NF-κB Signaling Activation Reduces Retinal Neovascularization by Promoting a Polarization Shift in Macrophages.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2020Article
- Crosstalk Between Mast Cells and Adipocytes in Physiologic and Pathologic Conditions.Clinical reviews in allergy & immunology · 2020Review
- Electrochemical ELISA Protein Biosensing in Undiluted Serum Using a Polypyrrole-Based Platform.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- mcIRBP-19 of Bitter Melon Peptide Effectively Regulates Diabetes Mellitus (DM) Patients' Blood Sugar Levels.Nutrients · 2020Article
- Identification of chemotypes in bitter melon by metabolomics: a plant with potential benefit for management of diabetes in traditional Chinese medicine.Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society · 2019Article
- Beneficial Effects of an Aged Black Garlic Extract in the Metabolic and Vascular Alterations Induced by a High Fat/Sucrose Diet in Male Rats.Nutrients · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Obesity is a world-wide epidemic disease that correlates closely with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Obesity-induced chronic adipose tissue inflammation is now considered as a critical contributor to the above complications. Momordica charantia (bitter melon, BM) is a traditional Chinese food and well known for its function of reducing body weight gain and insulin resistance. However, it is unclear whether BM could alleviate adipose tissue inflammation caused by obesity. In this study, C57BL/6 mice were fed high fat diet (HFD) with or without BM for 12 weeks. BM-contained diets ameliorated HFD-induced obesity and insulin resistance. Histological and real-time PCR analysis demonstrated BM not only reduced macrophage infiltration into epididymal adipose tissues (EAT) and brown adipose tissues (BAT). Flow cytometry show that BM could modify the M1/M2 phenotype ratio of macrophages in EAT. Further study showed that BM lowered mast cell recruitments in EAT, and depressed pro-inflammatory cytokine monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) expression in EAT and BAT as well as interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) expression in EAT. Finally, ELISA analysis showed BM-contained diets also normalized serum levels of the cytokines. In summary, in concert with ameliorated insulin resistance and fat deposition, BM reduced adipose tissue inflammation in diet-induced obese (DIO) mice.
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