Steam explosion modified pea peptides alleviates hepatosteatosis by regulating lipid metabolism pathways and promoting autophagy.

Pea peptides (PP) are natural compounds with multiple biological activities. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect and mechanisms of steam explosion (SE)-modified PP on lipid metabolism in vivo and in vitro. The findings demonstrated that SE-modified PP treatment significantly inhibited lipid accumulation in HepG2 cells induced by free fatty acids (FFA). In addition, SE-modified PP treatment significantly alleviated liver index, improved biochemical parameters in high-fat diet (HFD) mice. SE-modified PP prevented lipid accumulation through regulating AMPK activity and decreased lipogenesis associated proteins (SREBP, FAS, and ACC), upregulated fatty acid oxidation proteins (PPARα, PGC1α, and CPT-1 A). Moreover, SE-modified PP alleviated hepatic oxidative stress by regulating Nrf2/HO-1 pathway, and relieved liver mitochondrial autophagy by upregulating Beclin 1 and LC3B expression. These results demonstrate that SE-modified PP alleviates NAFLD by reducing lipid accumulation, inhibiting hepatic oxidative stress, and increasing liver mitochondrial autophagy, which providing reference for the development of dietary supplements for the treatment and prevention of NAFLD.