Preliminary Study On The Interventional Effect Of Cornus Officinalis Extract On Insulin-resistant Mice And Its Mechanism

Fructus cormi is the fruit of Cornus officinalis Sieb.et Zucc with slight smell and slightly bitter,being thick flesh,soft,purplish red.The plant produces a large amount of sour fruit in late autumn,which is collected when it turns red in color.The fruit is baked over a slow fire or treated with boiling water;the kernels are then removed and the fruit is sun-dried.it is a ready-made Chinese traditional medicine.It has attracted much interest for its traditional applications and active fraction that possibly amelioration of Insulin resistance effect.Compositions isolated from Cornus officinalis contain oleanolic acid,ursolic acid,iridoid glycoside,tannins,etc.Modern pharmacological studies have indicated Cormi fructus can resist inflammation and relieve pain,suppress immunity,prevent liver injury and control postprandial hyperglycemia,alleviate oxidative stress,etc.Insulin resistance(IR)is a physiological condition in which cells fail to respond to the normal actions of the hormone insulin.The body produces insulin,but the cells in the body become resistant to insulin and are unable to use it as effectively,leading to hyperglycemia.IR is one of the major contributing factors in the development of metabolic diseases such as diabetes mellitus,hypertension,and dyslipidemia.The aim of this study was to determine the effect of ethanol extract of Fructus corni on insulin resistance conditions in high-fat diet with fructose(HF)fed mice and explores the potential underlying mechanisms.To identify the metabolic impact of the Fructus corni,HF diet-fed mice were administered FC orally at doses of 100/200/400mg/kg/d for 6 weeks,and various factors related to metabolic syndrome were analyzed that including body weight,serum glucose,serum insulin,TC,TG,HDL,LDL and other biochemical criterions levels.We also examined the effects of FC on the expression of genes and proteins involved in Insulin-mediated glucose metabolism in PI3K/AKT pathway.FC administration led to a markable drop in body weight,serum glucose,serum Insulin,TC,TG,LDL compared with the model control group,the levels of HDL are improved,as well as the pathological changes of tissues observed by HE staining.Furthermore,the expression of the target proteins and its mRNA of InsR、IRS、PI3K、AKT、GLUT4 from livers of mice were investigated,indicating the FC grups have significantly higher levels than those in model group.It is the same with the expression of PI3K and GLUT4 in skeletal museles.The results demonstrate that Fructus corni may be a promising therapeutic agent for improving insulin resistance probably by modulating the key proteins in PI3K/AKT pathway in liver and skeletal muscles.