Effect of bergenin on hepatic glucose metabolism and insulin signaling in C57BL/6J mice with high fat-diet induced type 2 diabetes

In this study, the therapeutic efficacy of bergenin was examined against high-fat diet (HFD) induced type 2 diabetes in C57BL/6J mice. These mice were fed continuously HFD for 16 weeks and subjected to intragastric administration of various doses (10, 20 and 40 mg/kg body weight (BW)) of bergenin daily for subsequent 8 weeks. Bergenin supplementation to HFD-fed mice lower body weight gain, plasma glucose and insulin in diabetic mice. It further restored the alterations of biochemical parameters to near normal levels in diabetic mice. As compared to other two doses of 10 mg and 20 mg, bergenin 40 mg/kg BW were showed significant protective effect on the biochemical parameter studied. Consequently, it improved insulin-dependent glucose transport in the liver through translocation and activation of glucose transporter protein 2 (GLUT 2) in phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/phosphorylated protein kinase B (AKT) dependent pathway. These findings provided evidence to exhibit that bergenin could improve liver tissue hyperglycemia, insulin sensitivity increase glucose uptake and shows hepatoprotective. Hence it might be used in the management of obesity-associated type 2 diabetes mellitus.