Ponicidin attenuates streptozotocin‐induced diabetic nephropathy in rats via modulating hyperlipidemia, oxidative stress, and inflammatory markers

Cardioprotective role of diacerein in diabetic cardiomyopathy via modulation of inflammasome/caspase1/interleukin1β pathway in juvenile rats

Diabetes mellitus is a common metabolic disorder affecting different body organs; one of its serious complications is diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM). Thus, finding more cardiopreserving agents to protect the heart against such illness is a critical task. For the first time, we planned to study the suspected role of diacerein (DIA) in ameliorating DCM in juvenile rats and explore different mechanisms mediating its effect including inflammasome/caspase1/interleukin1β pathway. Four-week-aged juvenile rats were randomly divided into groups; the control group, diacerein group, diabetic group, and diabetic-treated group. Streptozotocin (45 mg/kg) single intraperitoneal (i.p.) dose was administered for induction of type 1 diabetes on the 1st day which was confirmed by detecting blood glucose level. DIA was given in a dose of 50 mg/kg/day for 6 weeks to diabetic and non-diabetic rats, then we evaluated different inflammatory, apoptotic, and oxidative stress parameters. Induction of DCM succeeded as there were significant increases in cardiac enzymes, heart weights, fasting blood glucose level (FBG), and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) associated with elevated blood pressure (BP), histopathological changes, and increased caspase 3 immunoexpression. Furthermore, there was an increase of malondialdehyde (MDA), inflammasome, caspase1, angiotensin II, nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα), and interleukin 1β (IL1β). However, antioxidant parameters such as reduced glutathione (GSH) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) significantly declined. Fortunately, DIA reversed the diabetic cardiomyopathy changes mostly due to the observed anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-apoptotic properties with regulation of blood glucose level.DIA has an ability to regulate DCM-associated biochemical and histopathological disturbances.

Lactiplantibacillus plantarum N4 ameliorates lipid metabolism and gut microbiota structure in high fat diet-fed rats

Lowing blood lipid levels with probiotics has good application prospects. This study aimed to isolate probiotics with hypolipidemic efficacy from homemade na dish and investigate their mechanism of action. In vitro experiments were conducted to determine the cholesterol-lowering ability of five isolates, with results showing that Lactiplantibacillus plantarum N4 exhibited a high cholesterol-lowering rate of 50.27% and significant resistance to acid (87%), bile salt (51.97%), and pepsin (88.28%) in simulated gastrointestinal fluids, indicating promising application prospects for the use of probiotics in lowering blood lipids. The findings from the in vivo experiment demonstrated that the administration of N4 effectively attenuated lipid droplet accumulation and inflammatory cell infiltration in the body weight and liver of hyperlipidemic rats, leading to restoration of liver tissue morphology and structure, as well as improvement in lipid and liver biochemical parameters. 16S analysis indicated that the oral administration of N4 led to significant alterations in the relative abundance of various genera, including Sutterella, Bacteroides, Clostridium, and Ruminococcus, in the gut microbiota of hyperlipidemia rats. Additionally, fecal metabolomic analysis identified a total of 78 metabolites following N4 intervention, with carboxylic acids and their derivatives being the predominant compounds detected. The transcriptomic analysis revealed 156 genes with differential expression following N4 intervention, leading to the identification of 171 metabolic pathways through Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis. Notably, the glutathione metabolism pathway, PPAR signaling pathway, and bile secretion pathway emerged as the primary enrichment pathways. The findings from a comprehensive multi-omics analysis indicate that N4 influences lipid metabolism and diminishes lipid levels in hyperlipidemic rats through modulation of fumaric acid and γ-aminobutyric acid concentrations, as well as glutathione and other metabolic pathways in the intestinal tract, derived from both the gut microbiota and the host liver. This research offers valuable insights into the therapeutic potential of probiotics for managing lipid metabolism disorders and their utilization in the development of functional foods.

Association between heme oxygenase-1 and hyperlipidemia in pre-diabetic patients: a cross-sectional study

Background

Although the importance and benefit of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) in diabetes rodent models has been known, the contribution of HO-1 in the pre-diabetic patients with hyperlipidemia risk still remains unclear. This cross-sectional study aims to evaluate whether HO-1 is associated with hyperlipidemia in pre-diabetes.

Methods

Serum level of HO-1 was detected using commercially available ELISA kit among 1,425 participants aged 49.3-63.9 with pre-diabetes in a multicenter Risk Evaluation of cAncers in Chinese diabeTic Individuals: A lONgitudinal (REACTION) prospective observational study. Levels of total cholesterol (TC) and triglyceride (TG) were measured and used to defined hyperlipidemia. The association between HO-1 and hyperlipidemia was explored in different subgroups.

Result

The level of HO-1 in pre-diabetic patients with hyperlipidemia (181.72 ± 309.57 pg/ml) was obviously lower than that in pre-diabetic patients without hyperlipidemia (322.95 ± 456.37 pg/ml). High level of HO-1 [(210.18,1,746.18) pg/ml] was negatively associated with hyperlipidemia (OR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.37-0.97; p = 0.0367) after we adjusted potential confounding factors. In subgroup analysis, high level of HO-1 was negatively associated with hyperlipidemia in overweight pre-diabetic patients (OR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.3-0.9; p = 0.034), especially in overweight women (OR, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.21-0.84; p = 0.014).

Conclusions

In conclusion, elevated HO-1 level was negatively associated with risk of hyperlipidemia in overweight pre-diabetic patients, especially in female ones. Our findings provide information on the exploratory study of the mechanism of HO-1 in hyperlipidemia, while also suggesting that its mechanism may be influenced by body weight and gender.

Oxidative stress: A common pathological state in a high-risk population for osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is becoming a major concern in the field of public health. The process of bone loss is insidious and does not directly induce obvious symptoms. Complications indicate an irreversible decrease in bone mass. The high-risk populations of osteoporosis, including postmenopausal women, elderly men, diabetic patients and obese individuals need regular bone mineral density testing and appropriate preventive treatment. However, the primary changes in these populations are different, increasing the difficulty of effective treatment of osteoporosis. Determining the core pathogenesis of osteoporosis helps improve the efficiency and efficacy of treatment among these populations. Oxidative stress is a common pathological state secondary to estrogen deficiency, aging, hyperglycemia and hyperlipemia. In this review, we divided oxidative stress into the direct effect of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the reduction of antioxidant enzyme activity to discuss their roles in the development of osteoporosis. ROS initiated mitochondrial apoptotic signaling and suppressed osteogenic marker expression to weaken osteogenesis. MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathways mediated the positive effect of ROS on osteoclast differentiation. Antioxidant enzymes not only eliminate the negative effects of ROS, but also directly participate in the regulation of bone metabolism. Additionally, we also described the roles of proinflammatory factors and HIF-1α under the pathophysiological changes of inflammation and hypoxia, which provided a supplement of oxidative stress-induced osteoporosis. In conclusion, our review showed that oxidative stress was a common pathological state in a high-risk population for osteoporosis. Targeted oxidative stress treatment would greatly optimize the therapeutic schedule of various osteoporosis treatments.

Molecular Mechanistic Pathways Targeted by Natural Compounds in the Prevention and Treatment of Diabetic Kidney Disease

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is one of the most common complications of diabetes, and its prevalence is still growing rapidly. However, the efficient therapies for this kidney disease are still limited. The pathogenesis of DKD involves glucotoxicity, lipotoxicity, inflammation, oxidative stress, and renal fibrosis. Glucotoxicity and lipotoxicity can cause oxidative stress, which can lead to inflammation and aggravate renal fibrosis. In this review, we have focused on in vitro and in vivo experiments to investigate the mechanistic pathways by which natural compounds exert their effects against the progression of DKD. The accumulated and collected data revealed that some natural compounds could regulate inflammation, oxidative stress, renal fibrosis, and activate autophagy, thereby protecting the kidney. The main pathways targeted by these reviewed compounds include the Nrf2 signaling pathway, NF-κB signaling pathway, TGF-β signaling pathway, NLRP3 inflammasome, autophagy, glycolipid metabolism and ER stress. This review presented an updated overview of the potential benefits of these natural compounds for the prevention and treatment of DKD progression, aimed to provide new potential therapeutic lead compounds and references for the innovative drug development and clinical treatment of DKD.