1. Berberine Down-Regulated Myostatin Expression and Facilitated Metabolism via Smad Pathway in Insulin Resistant Mice
- Author
-
Yu Hu, Xiaojuan Su, and Lingyan Chen
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Adipose tissue ,030209 endocrinology & metabolism ,Myostatin ,030204 cardiovascular system & hematology ,03 medical and health sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,0302 clinical medicine ,Insulin resistance ,Berberine ,Internal medicine ,Internal Medicine ,medicine ,Protein kinase B ,Pharmacology ,Glucose tolerance test ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,biology ,business.industry ,Insulin tolerance test ,Skeletal muscle ,medicine.disease ,Endocrinology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,chemistry ,biology.protein ,business - Abstract
Objective To explore the effect of berberine (BBR) on skeletal muscle mass and metabolism and the possible mechanism. Methods Eight-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were fed with a high-fat diet (HFD) for 8 weeks to establish the insulin resistance obesity model. Then, mice were randomly divided into two groups (normal chow diet (NCD) and HFD), while NCD and HFD were further classified into two groups respectively, which were NCD+CS (Carmellose Sodium), NCD+BBR, HFD+CS and HFD+BBR. After the BBR intervention, insulin tolerance test (ITT) and glucose tolerance test (GTT) were carried out. Metabolic parameters and inflammatory biomarkers were detected. Various parts of adipose tissue and gastrocnemius were separated and measured. The gastrocnemius muscle was selected for tissue staining. The mRNA expression of myostatin (Mstn) was tested by quantitative real-time PCR (RT-PCR). Western blotting was performed to detect the expression of Mstn, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), protein kinase B (Akt), small ribonucleoprotein particle protein 2 (Smd2), small ribonucleoprotein particle protein 3 (Smd3), and small ribonucleoprotein particle protein 4 (Smd4). Results Both body weights (P
- Published
- 2020