The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different concentrations of sporamin on the differentiation and proliferation of 3T3-LI preadipocytes, providing the theoretical basis for the development of food to treat obesity and diabetes, The isolation and purification of sporamin from sweet potato species 55-2 were performed by ammonium sulphate precipitation in combination with ion-exchange and gel filtration chromatography. With berberine as a positive control, different concentrations ofsporamin （0.000, 0.125, 0.025, 0.250, 0.500, and 1.000 mg·mL^-1 were used to treat 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. Intracellular fat accumulation and the degree of adipogenesis were quantified using Oil Red O staining and colorimetry, Preadipocytes differentiation was measured by 3（4,5-dimethylthiazolyl-2-yl）-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide （MTT） spectrophotometric assay. Two sporamin proteins, which were separated into sporamin A （31 kD） and sporamin B （22 kD）, could be purified by ion-exchange and gel filtration chromatography. After being treated by different concentrations of sporamin, the differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes was significantly inhibited, compared with the positive control. When the sporamin solution concentration was 0.500 mg mL-1, the accumulation of lipid droplets within the cells was significantly decreased and the optical density （OD） value of the solution from destained Oil Red O reached to 0.35, which was the lowest value （P〈 0.05）. The proliferation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes was significantly inhibited by treating at higher sporamin concentrations. In addition, the inhibitory effect was more obvious with the prolonged treatment time （P〈 0.05）. The differentiation and proliferation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes could be inhibited significantly by the addition of higher concentration sporamin. It was, therefore, suggested that the sporamin was potentially effective for weight loss.
