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Hypoglycemic mechanism of polysaccharide from Cyclocarya paliurus leaves in type 2 diabetic rats by gut microbiota and host metabolism alteration

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Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a serious threat to human health. Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.) Iljinskaja (C.paliurus) is one of the traditional herbal medicine and food in China for treating type 2 diabetes, and the C. paliurus polysaccharides (CP) were found to be one of its major functional constituents. This research aimed at investigating the hypoglycemic mechanism for CP. It was found that CP markedly attenuated the symptoms of diabetes, and inhibited the protein expression of Bax, improved the expression of Bcl-2 in pancreas of diabetic rats, normalized hormones secretion and controlled the inflammation which contributed to the regeneration of pancreatic β-cell and insulin resistance. CP treatment increased the beneficial bacteria genus Ruminococcaceae UCG-005 which was reported to be a key genus for protecting against diabetes, and the fecal short-chain fatty acids levels were elevated. Uric metabolites analysis showed that CP treatment helped to protect with the diabetes by seven significantly improved pathways closely with the nutrition metabolism (amino acids and purine) and energy metabolism (TCA cycle), which could help to build up the intestinal epithelial cell defense for the inflammation associated with the diabetes. Our study highlights the specific mechanism of prebiotics to attenuate diabetes through multi-path of gut microbiota and host metabolism.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China for Distinguished Young Scholars (31825020), the Outstanding Science and Technology Innovation Team Project in Jiangxi Province (20165BCB19001), the Project of Academic Leaders of the Major Disciplines in Jiangxi Province (20162BCB22008), the Young Key Project of Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (20171ACB21013), the Collaborative Project in Agriculture and Food Field between China and Canada (2017ZJGH0102001), and the Research Project of State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology (SKLF-ZZA-201611). We thank all the volunteers for their help in collecting samples of animal tissues and feces.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, China-Canada Joint Lab of Food Science and Technology (Nanchang), Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330047, China

    Qiqiong Li, Jielun Hu, Qixing Nie, Qingying Fang, Junhua Xie, Haishan Li & Shaoping Nie

  2. The Center for Applied Genomics, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104, USA

    Xiao Chang

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  1. Qiqiong Li
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Li, Q., Hu, J., Nie, Q. et al. Hypoglycemic mechanism of polysaccharide from Cyclocarya paliurus leaves in type 2 diabetic rats by gut microbiota and host metabolism alteration. Sci. China Life Sci. 64, 117–132 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-019-1647-6

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