Flegal, K. M., D. Kruszon-Moran, M. D. Carroll, C. D. Fryar, and C. L. Ogden (2016) Trends in obesity among adults in the United States, 2005 to 2014. JAMA. 315: 2284–2291.
Jia, W. (2015) Obesity in China: its characteristics, diagnostic criteria, and implications. Front Med. 9: 129–133.
Wang, S. and J. Ren (2018) Obesity paradox in aging: from prevalence to pathophysiology. Prog. Cardiovasc. Dis. 61: 182–189.
World Health Organisation. Obesity and overweight (2018) http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/.
Jung, U. J. and M. S. Choi (2014) Obesity and its metabolic complications: the role of adipokines and the relationship between obesity, inflammation, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 15: 6184–6223.
Kang, J. G. and C. Y. Park (2012) Anti-obesity drugs: A review about their effects and safety. Diabetes Metab. J. 36: 13–25.
Derosa, G. and P. Maffioli (2012) Anti-obesity drugs: a review about their effects and their safety. Expert. Opin. Drug Saf. 11: 459–471.
Tan, C. Y., K. Ishikawa, S. Virtue, and A. Vidal-Puig (2011) Brown adipose tissue in the treatment of obesity and diabetes: Are we hot enough? J. Diabetes Investig. 2: 341–350.
Kaur, K. K., G. Allahbadia, and M. Singh (2018) Advances in BAT physiology for understanding and translating into Pharmacotherapies for obesity and comorbidities. MOJ. Drug Des. Develop. Ther. 2: 166–176.
Saito, M. (2013) Brown adipose tissue as a regulator of energy expenditure and body fat in humans. Diabetes Metab. J. 37: 22–29.
Van Marken Lichtenbelt, W. D., J. W. Vanhommerig, N. M. Smulders, J. M. Drossaerts, G. J. Kemerink, N. D. Bouvy, P. Schrauwen, and G. J. Teule (2009) Cold-activated brown adipose tissue in healthy men. N. Engl. J. Med. 360: 1500–1508.
Cypess, A. M. and C. R. Kahn (2010) Brown fat as a therapy for obesity and diabetes. Curr. Opin. Endocrinol Diabetes Obes. 17: 143–149.
Wang, W. and P. Seale (2016) Control of brown and beige fat development. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell. Biol. 17: 691–702.
Karri, S., S. Sharma, K. Hatware, and K. Patil (2019) Natural anti-obesity agents and their therapeutic role in management of obesity: A future trend perspective. Biomed. Pharmacother. 110: 224–238.
Bonet, M. L., P. Oliver, and A. Palou (2013) Pharmacological and nutritional agents promoting browning of white adipose tissue. Biochim. Biophys. Acta. 1831: 969–985.
Jang, M. H., N. H. Kang, S. Mukherjee, and J. W. Yun (2018) Theobromine, a methylxanthine in cocoa bean, stimulates thermogenesis by inducing white fat browning and activating brown adipocytes. Biotechnol. Bioprocess Eng. 23: 617–626.
Mukherjee, S., K. R. Aseer, and J. W. Yun (2020) Roles of macrophage colony stimulating factor in white and brown adipocytes. Biotechnol. Bioprocess Eng. 25: 29–38.
Veeresham, C. (2012) Natural products derived from plants as a source of drugs. J. Adv. Pharm. Technol. Res. 3: 200–201.
Mohamed, G. A., S. R. M. Ibrahim, E. S. Elkhayat, and R. S. El Dine (2014) Natural anti-obesity agents. Bull. Fac. Pharm. Cairo Univ. 52: 269–284.
Mopuri, R. and M. S. Islam (2017) Medicinal plants and phytochemicals with anti-obesogenic potentials: A review. Biomed. Pharmacother. 89: 1442–1452.
Azhar, Y., A. Parmar, C. N. Miller, J. S. Samuels, and S. Rayalam (2016) Phytochemicals as novel agents for the induction of browning in white adipose tissue. Nutr. Metab. (Lond). 13: 89.
Silvester, A. J., K. R. Aseer, and J. W. Yun (2019) Dietary polyphenols and their roles in fat browning. J. Nutr. Biochem. 64: 1–12.
Espín, J. C., R. González-Barrio, B. Cerdá, C. López-Bote, A. I. Rey, and F. A. Tomás-Barberán (2007) Iberian pig as a model to clarify obscure points in the bioavailability and metabolism of ellagitannins in humans. J. Agric. Food Chem. 55: 10476–10485.
Gimenez-Bastida, J. A., A. Gonzalez-Sarrias, M. Larrosa, F. Tomas-Barberan, J. C. Espin, and M. T. Garcia-Conesa (2012) Ellagitannin metabolites, urolithin A glucuronide and its aglycone urolithin A, ameliorate TNF-α-induced inflammation and associated molecular markers in human aortic endothelial cells. Mol. Nutr. Food Res. 56: 784–796.
Piwowarski, J. P., S. Granica, M. Zwierzyńska, J. Stefańska, P. Schopohl, M. F. Melzig, and A. K. Kiss (2014) Role of human gut microbiota metabolism in the anti-inflammatory effect of traditionally used ellagitannin-rich plant materials. J. Ethnopharmacol. 155: 801–809.
Heber, D. (2008) Multitargeted therapy of cancer by ellagitannins. Cancer Lett. 269: 262–268.
Li, Z., S. M. Henning, R. P. Lee, Q. Y. Lu, P. H. Summanen, G. Thames, K. Corbett, J. Downes, C. H. Tseng, S. M. Finegold, and D. Heber (2015) Pomegranate extract induces ellagitannin metabolite formation and changes stool microbiota in healthy volunteers. Food Funct. 6: 2487–2495.
Puupponen-Pimiä, R., T. Seppänen-Laakso, M. Kankainen, J. Maukonen, R. Törrönen, M. Kolehmainen, T. Leppänen, E. Moilanen, L. Nohynek, A. M. Aura, K. Poutanen, F. A. Tómas-Barberán, J. C. Espín, and K. M. Oksman-Caldentey (2013) Effects of ellagitannin-rich berries on blood lipids, gut microbiota, and urolithin production in human subjects with symptoms of metabolic syndrome. Mol. Nutr. Food Res. 57: 2258–2263.
Tomás-Barberán, F. A., A. González-Sarrías, R. García-Villalba, M. A. Núñez-Sánchez, M. V. Selma, M. T. García-Conesa, and J. C. Espín (2017) Urolithins, the rescue of “old” metabolites to understand a “new” concept: Metabotypes as a nexus among phenolic metabolism, microbiota dysbiosis, and host health status. Mol. Nutr. Food Res. 61: 1500901.
Espin, J. C., M. Larrosa, M. T. Garcia-Conesa, and F. Tomas-Barberan (2013) Biological significance of urolithins, the gut microbial ellagic acid-derived metabolites: the evidence so far. Evid. Based Complement Alterna. Med. 2013: 270418.
Selma, M. V., A. González-Sarrías, J. Salas-Salvadó, C. Andrés-Lacueva, C. Alasalvar, A. Örem, F. A. Tomás-Barberán, and J. C. Espín (2018) The gut microbiota metabolism of pomegranate or walnut ellagitannins yields two urolithin-metabotypes that correlate with cardiometabolic risk biomarkers: Comparison between normoweight, overweight-obesity and metabolic syndrome. Clin. Nutr. 37: 897–905.
Ishimoto, H., M. Shibata, Y. Myojin, H. Ito, Y. Sugimoto, A. Tai, and T. Hatano (2011) In vivo anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of ellagitannin metabolite urolithin A. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 21: 5901–5904.
Cerda, B., P. Periago, J. C. Espín, and F. A. Tomas-Barberan (2005) Identification of urolithin A as a metabolite produced by human colon microflora from ellagic acid and related compounds. J. Agric. Food Chem. 53: 5571–5576.
Singh, R., S. Chandrashekharappa, S. R. Bodduluri, B. V. Baby, B. Hegde, N. G. Kotla, A. A. Hiwale, T. Saiyed, P. Patel, M. Vijay-Kumar, M. G. Langille, G. M. Douglas, X. Cheng, E. C. Rouchka, S. J. Waigel, G. W. Dryden, H. Alatassi, H. G. Zhang, B. Haribabu, P. K. Vemula, and V. R. Jala (2019) Enhancement of the gut barrier integrity by a microbial metabolite through the Nrf2 pathway. Nat. Commun. 10: 89.
Kang, I., Y. Kim, F. A. Tomas-Barberan, J. C. Espin, and S. Chung (2016) Urolithin A, C, and D, but not iso-urolithin A and urolithin B, attenuate triglyceride accumulation in human cultures of adipocytes and hepatocytes. Mol. Nutr. Food Res. 60: 1129–1138.
Les, F., J. M. Arbones-Mainar, M. S. Valero, and V. Lopez (2018) Pomegranate polyphenols and urolithin A inhibit α-glucosidase, dipeptidyl peptidase-4, lipase, triglyceride accumulation and adipogenesis related genes in 3T3-L1 adipocyte-like cells. J. Ethnopharmacol. 220: 67–74.
Mosmann, T. (1983) Rapid colorimetric assay for cellular growth and survival: application to proliferation and cytotoxicity assays. J. Immunol. Methods. 65: 55–63.
Kang, B., C. Y. Kim, J. Hwang, K. Jo, S. Kim, H. J. Suh, and H. S. Choi (2019) Punicalagin, a pomegranate-derived ellagitannin, suppresses obesity and obesity-induced inflammatory responses via the Nrf2/Keap1 signaling pathway. Mol. Nutr. Food Res. 63: e1900574.
Wang, L., Y. Wei, C. Ning, M. Zhang, P. Fan, D. Lei, J. Du, M. Gale, Y. Ma, and Y. Yang (2019) Ellagic acid promotes browning of white adipose tissues in high-fat diet-induced obesity in rats through suppressing white adipocyte maintaining genes. Endocr. J. 66: 923–936.
Han, Q. A., C. Yan, L. Wang, G. Li, Y. Xu, and X. Xia (2016) Urolithin A attenuates ox-LDL-induced endothelial dysfunction partly by modulating microRNA-27 and ERK/PPAR-γ pathway. Mol. Nutr. Food Res. 60: 1933–1943.
Seale, P., S. Kajimura, W. Yang, S. Chin, L. M. Rohas, M. Uldry, G. Tavernier, D. Langin, and B. M. Spiegelman (2007) Trans-criptional control of brown fat determination by PRDM16. Cell Metab. 6: 38–54.
Sharp, L. Z., K. Shinoda, H. Ohno, D. W. Scheel, E. Tomoda, L. Ruiz, H. Hu, L. Wang, Z. Pavlova, V. Gilsanz, and S. Kajimura (2012) Human BAT possesses molecular signatures that resemble beige/brite cells. PLoS One. 7: e49452.
Tiraby, C., G. Tavernier, C. Lefort, D. Larrouy, F. Bouillaud, D. Ricquier, and D. Langin (2003) Acquirement of brown fat cell features by human white adipocytes. J. Biol. Chem. 278: 33370–33376.
Vega, R. B., J. M. Huss, and D. P. Kelly (2000) The coactivator PGC-1 cooperates with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α in transcriptional control of nuclear genes encoding mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation enzymes. Mol. Cell. Biol. 20: 1868–1876.
Toney, A. M., R. Fan, Y. Xian, V. Chaidez, A. E. Ramer-Tait, and S. Chung (2019) Urolithin A, a gut metabolite, improves insulin sensitivity through augmentation of mitochondrial function and biogenesis. Obesity. 27: 612–620.
Farmer, S. R. (2006) Transcriptional control of adipocyte formation. Cell Metab. 4: 263–273.
Tung, Y. C., P. H. Hsieh, M. H. Pan, and C. T. Ho (2017) Cellular models for the evaluation of the antiobesity effect of selected phytochemicals from food and herbs. J. Food Drug Anal. 25: 100–110.
Hardie, D. G., F. A. Ross, and S. A. Hawley (2012) AMPK: A nutrient and energy sensor that maintains energy homeostasis. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 13: 251–262.
Viollet, B., S. Horman, J. Leclerc, L. Lantier, M. Foretz, M. Billaud, S. Giri, and F. Andreelli (2010) AMPK inhibition in health and disease. Crit. Rev. Biochem. Mol. Biol. 45: 276–295.
Duncan, R. E., M. Ahmadian, K. Jaworski, E. Sarkadi-Nagy, and H. S. Sul (2007) Regulation of lipolysis in adipocytes. Annu. Rev. Nutr. 27: 79–101.
Nielsen, T. S., N. Jessen, J. O. L. Jørgensen, N. Møller, and S. Lund (2014) Dissecting adipose tissue lipolysis: molecular regulation and implications for metabolic disease. J. Mol. Endocrinol. 52: R199–R222.
Hondares, E., R. Iglesias, A. Giralt, F. J. Gonzalez, M. Giralt, T. Mampel, and F. Villarroya (2011) Thermogenic activation induces FGF21 expression and release in brown adipose tissue. J. Biol. Chem. 286: 12983–12990.
Cao, W., K. W. Daniel, J. Robidoux, P. Puigserver, A. V. Medvedev, X. Bai, L. M. Floering, B. M. Spiegelman, and S. Collins (2004) p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase is the central regulator of cyclic AMP-dependent transcription of the brown fat uncoupling protein 1 gene. Mol. Cell Biol. 24: 3057–3067.
Whittle, A. J., S. Carobbio, L. Martins, M. Slawik, E. Hondares, M. J. Vázquez, D. Morgan, R. I. Csikasz, R. Gallego, S. Rodriguez-Cuenca, M. Dale, S. Virtue, F. Villarroya, B. Cannon, K. Rahmouni, M. López, and A. Vidal-Puig (2012) BMP8B increases brown adipose tissue thermogenesis through both central and peripheral actions. Cell. 149: 871–885.
Choi, J. H., S. W. Kim, R. Yu, and J. W. Yun (2017) Monoterpene phenolic compound thymol promotes browning of 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Eur. J. Nutr. 56: 2329–2341.
Cao, W., A. V. Medvedev, K. W. Daniel, and S. Collines (2001) β-adrenergic activation of p38 MAPK kinase in adipocytes: cAMP induction of the uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) gene requires p38 MAP kinase. J. Biol. Chem. 276: 27077–27082.