The carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua L.) has been widely cultivated in Mediterranean countries for years. The carob fruit, a brown pod of 10-25 cm in length, contains high amounts of polyphenols. For this reason, the Ceratonia siliqua fruit extract has been used in the folk medicine for its putative cholesterol-lowering activities in humans suffering from hypercholesterolemia and for its antioxidant properties. However, these properties have not been scientifically proven. Therefore, we choose the experimental model C.elegans in order to verify whether the C.siliqua extract could have possible antioxidant effects and cause lipid reduction in vivo. We used aqueous extract to using treatment, was performed with 2000 worms exposed to the extracts (3,1microg, 31,0microg and 62,0microg GAE) for 30 minutes. We used strains N2, GA800 (
ctl-1,2,3::GFP), CF1553 (
sod-3::GFP), CL2166 (
gst-4::GFP) and RB1600 (
tub-1(
ok1972)), which were obtained from CGC. It was verified the activities of the antioxidant enzymes SOD (superoxide dismutase), CAT (catalase) and GST (glutathione-S- transferase), as well as their respective enzymatic expressions. Furthermore we measured the safety of the extract by analyzing survival, longevity and brood size. To measure the lipids levels, we used the Nile Red dye and also measured triglycerides in L4 worms. The statistical analyses were performed by one-way or two-way ANOVA. We observed that both expressions of the enzymes were increased and activity of the enzymes was reduced, which may be in accordance to the in vitro antioxidant activity of the extract. Furthermore, the extract depicted a reduction in both lipid droplets and triglycerides in
tub-1 and N2 worms. In addition, we did not observe any toxic effects of the extract. Thus, we can suggest that the effect of C.siliqua extract in small short time modulates antioxidant enzymes and this may be associated to the lipid reduction. That way, considering that SOD and GST-4 are targeting genes of DAF-16, and that DAF-16 also upregulates lipases as LIPL-4, we will further investigate the role of these genes in worms exposed to C.siliqua extract. .