Oligosaccharides of Ophiopogon japonicus ameliorate insulin resistance and glucolipid metabolism in HFD/STZ-induced T2DM rats and IR-HepG2 cells via activation of the IRS-1/PI3K/AKT/GSK-3β pathway

Abstract

Ophiopogonis radix has been used for both food and traditional Chinese medicine in China for millennia. Oligosaccharides of Ophiopogon japonicus (OOJ), the primary bioactive components of Ophiopogonis radix, have significant hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects. Insulin resistance (IR) and glucolipid metabolism were examined in vivo and in vitro in this work, utilizing IR-HepG2 cells and high-fat diet/streptozocin-induced type 2 diabetic mellitus (T2DM) rats as models. It was observed that OOJ efficiently improves various T2DM parameters, such as blood glucose, lipid profile, insulin sensitivity, glucose tolerance, glycogen content, glycogen consumption, liver index, and histopathology. These improvements may be attributed to the regulation and control of the insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1)/phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT (also known as protein kinase B, PKB)/glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) signaling pathways. These findings suggest that OOJ has potential as a functional food ingredient and therapeutic agent for treating metabolic syndrome and T2DM.

Keywords

• Insulin resistance
• Glucolipid metabolism
• Oligosaccharides of Ophiopogon japonicus
• PI3K/AKT
• Type 2 diabetes mellitus