Early Investigation on the Effects of Stevioside on Differentiation Process of Fibroblast into Adipocytes

Obesity is one of major health problems occurred worldwide including Malaysia. Unfortunately, no suitable treatment or mechanism can be used to solve the problem effectively. In order to find the most appropriate treatment, stevioside was chosen to investigate its effects in preventing obesity. Stevioside was used to observe its effect in four stages of differentiation process (lipid formation) 3T3-L1 murine pre-adipocytes (fibroblasts) into adipocytes. The process was observed using Oil red-O staining and measured using a spectrophotometer at the wavelength of 520 nm. From the results, stevioside was significantly inhibited the differentiation process at stage 2. Stevioside may interfere with the other supplements added in the cell culture media, which triggered the inhibition. However, the mechanism was unclear and required further studies. (paper)