This study was performed to investigate the effects of garlic on uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) transcriptional regulation of UCP2- luciferase transgenic mice fed on a high fat diet to induce obesity. To examine the transcriptional regulation of UCP2, we generated transgenic mice with a UCP2 promoter (-1,830/+30 bp) containing luciferase as a reporter gene. UCP2-luciferase transgenic mice were fed a 45% high-fat diet for 8 weeks to induce obesity. Subsequently, mice were maintained on either a high-fat control diet (TG-CON), or high-fat diets supplemented with 2% (TG-GL2) or 5% (TG-GL5) garlic for a further 8 weeks. Dietary garlic reduced body weight and energy efficiency ratio in the TG-GL5 group, compared to the TG-CON group. Furthermore, garlic supplementation significantly decreased white adipose tissue fat mass and plasma levels of triglycerides, total cholesterol, and leptin in the TG-GL2 and TG-GL5 groups, compared to the TG-CON group. Specifically, UCP2 promoter activity in metabolic tissues such as liver, white adipose tissue, brown adipose tissue, and skeletal muscle was increased by garlic supplementation. These results suggest that dietary garlic was partially associated with an increase of UCP2 transcriptional activity in metabolic tissues for decreasing obesity.

This study aimed to research meal quality and the dietary behaviors of college students for desirable dietary lives and provides basic data for nutritional education by examining polymorphism distribution of the UCP2 gene according to gender, by investigating attitudes in terms of their dietary habits and dietary lives, and by analyzing serum lipid levels and body composition. A survey was conducted with a total of 222 students - 93 male and 129 females. Based on a selfreporting method, the questionnaires were answered over 20 minutes, and UCP2 insertion/deletion gene polymorphism and blood samples were also analyzed. The results showed that the male students and female students had average BMI of 22.50 and 20.73 kg/m2, respectively. According to answers regarding their dietary lives, 51.4% of the students showed 'irregular eating' patterns, which is regarded as something to be corrected. In terms of eating regularity, 51.6% of the male students and 59.7% of the female students had irregular meal schedules. As the most important meal of a day, 64.0% of the students answered 'breakfast' but only 53.6% answered that they ate breakfast everyday. In addition, 39.8% of the male students and 50.4% of the female students ate between meals 'once a day'. When questioned if they were satisfied with their body shape, 17.8 and 45.2% of the male students answered they were 'satisfied' or needed to 'gain weight', respectively, whereas 17.8 and 77.5% of the female students answered they were 'satisfied' or needed to 'lose weight', respectively. The results of the UCP2 gene polymorphism analysis showed that 33.7% of the males belonged to the DI heterozygote group, 64.2% belonged to the DD homozygote group, and 2.1% belonged to the II homozygote group. For the female students, 63.4% belonged to the DI heterozygote group, 35.1% belonged to the DD homozygote group, and 1.5% belonged to the II homozygote group. According to the blood and serum lipid analyses, the male students showed average HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and hemoglobin levels of 57.20, 93.80, and 15.00 mg/dL, respectively, while the female students presented average levels of 56.69, 102.88, and 13.13 mg/dL, respectively. In conclusion, this study found no significant effects in terms of UCP2 gene polymorphisms, but it is suggested that practical plans must be designed that allow college students to use nutritional knowledge in their daily lives, and in particular, nutrition education needs to be develop that would enable female college students to recognize their bodies appropriately and to control their weight in desirable ways.

This study was carried out to compare UCP2 polymorphism, dietary habits, and obesity index in normal and obese university students. The survey was carried out using self-questionnaires collected from the 126 normal and 60 obese university students. The results are summarized as follows. Breakfast was skipped in 43.7% of normal and 49.3% of obesity students and it appeared obese students eat faster than normal students. The percentage of weight control experience were 49.2 and 71.0 in the normal and obese students, respectively. Blood levels of lipid profiles(triglyceride, LDL cholesterol, and HDL cholesterol), hemoglobin, AST and ALT were anaylzed. In UCP2 genes, the frequency of deletion homozygote(DD) was 71.5%, heterozygote(DI) was 26.9% and insertion homozygote(II) was 1.6%. Plasma levels of triglyceride, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and HDL cholesterol of normal students were 79.06, 172.25, 100.86 and 57.03 mg/dl, and those of obese students were 93.06, 173.22, 101.22 and 54.39 mg/dl, respectively. Blood parameters were in normal range in both group. Plasma triglyceride, total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels of obese students were higher than those of normal students. On the other hand, plasma HDL cholesterol levels of obese students were lower than those of normal students. Plasma levels of AST and ALT were in normal range in both group. However, AST and ALT levels of obese students were higher than that of normal students. Thus, it was recommended for them to have a nutritional education program to improve their dietary and living habits for obese students’health. Nutritional education program should also be organized practically and systematically.