Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) protein hydrolysate ameliorates metabolic effects of feeding a high-fat diet to mice

• Chickpea protein hydrolysate (CPH) had anti-inflammatory and antidiabetic effects. • CPH reduced body weight gain in C57BL/6J mice fed with a high-fat diet. • CPH decreased non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, macro and microvesicular steatosis. • CPH decreased size of adipocytes and inflammatory foci clusters in liver. The aim of this study was to identify peptides in chickpea protein hydrolysate (CPH) capable of ameliorating the metabolic consequences of a high-fat diet (HFD) using a model of metabolic dysfunction. C57BL/6J male mice were randomly divided into three groups (n = 13/group) and fed for 12 weeks a HFD + 0 mg CPH/kg body weight (BW) (0 CPH), HFD + 400 mg CPH/kg BW (400 CPH), or HFD + 800 mg CPH/kg BW (800 CPH). At the end, BW reduction in the 800 CPH group was 24.8 % compared to the control group (0 CPH) ( p < 0.01). The 0 CPH group had the highest NAFLD score, and the 800 CPH group had the lowest. In liver, 400 CPH downregulated genes (fold change [FC] >1 or <−1) related to long-chain fatty acid uptake (Slc27a1), adipokine signaling (Tnfrsf1b) and insulin signaling (Pik3r1, Ikbkb, and Map2k1). CPH prevents NAFLD development by regulating inflammation and preventing steatosis via lipogenesis.