Liubao tea as a functional fermented food: multi-omics insights into its modulation of lymphatic endothelial cell metabolism

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Background The "metabolism-inflammation" vicious cycle is an important driving factor for lymphatic dysfunction in secondary lymphedema (SL). Among them, lymph endothelial cells (LECs) act as a key regulatory hub. Liubao tea (LBT), a traditional post-fermented black tea, has anti-inflammatory, anti-fibrotic and lipid-lowering effects. However, whether the effects of LBT can extend to the lymphatic system, especially whether it functions by regulating the metabolism and immune function of LECs, still needs further clarification. Methods This study combined single-cell transcriptomics, bulk transcriptomics, network pharmacology, and molecular docking to systematically identify potential genes related to LBT in LECs. Subsequently, the effects of the LBT extract on the functions of human lymphatic endothelial cells (HLECs) and the expression of target genes were verified using the Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), wound healing experiments, and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Result The single-cell analysis revealed that the proportion of endothelial cells (ECs) in SL was significantly reduced (from 1.09% to 0.54%), but the expression of protein kinase Cβ (PRKCB) in the ECs showed a significant increase [fold change (FC) = 24.30, log 2 FC = 4.60, p = 1.44 × 10 -7 ], and the positive rate increased from In vitro experiments demonstrated that the extract of LBT

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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