Branched chain amino acids, as essential amino acids, can be used to synthesize nitrogen-containing compounds and also act as signal molecules to regulate substance metabolism. Studies have shown that the elevated level of branched chain amino acids is closely related to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. It can affect insulin signal transduction by activating mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signal pathway, and regulate insulin resistance by damaging lipid metabolism and affecting mitochondrial function. In addition, abnormal catabolism of branched amino acids can lead to the accumulation of metabolic intermediates, such as branched chain α-keto acids, 3-hydroxyisobutyrate and β-aminoisobutyric acid. Branched chain α-keto acids and 3-hydroxyisobutyrate can induce insulin resistance by affecting insulin signaling pathway and damaging lipid metabolism. β-aminoisobutyric acid can improve insulin resistance by reducing lipid accumulation and inflammatory reaction and enhancing fatty acid oxidation. This paper systematically reviewed the regulatory effects and mechanisms of branched chain amino acids and their metabolic intermediates on insulin resistance, which will provide a new direction for the prevention and treatment of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
Humans ; Amino Acids, Branched-Chain/metabolism* ; Insulin Resistance/physiology* ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; Insulin/pharmacology* ; Keto Acids/metabolism*

Most information used to evaluate diabetic statuses is collected at a special time-point, such as taking fasting plasma glucose test and providing a limited view of individual's health and disease risk. As a new parameter for continuously evaluating personal clinical statuses, the newly developed technique "continuous glucose monitoring" (CGM) can characterize glucose dynamics. By calculating the complexity of glucose time series index (CGI) with refined composite multi-scale entropy analysis of the CGM data, the study showed for the first time that the complexity of glucose time series in subjects decreased gradually from normal glucose tolerance to impaired glucose regulation and then to type 2 diabetes (P for trend < 0.01). Furthermore, CGI was significantly associated with various parameters such as insulin sensitivity/secretion (all P < 0.01), and multiple linear stepwise regression showed that the disposition index, which reflects β-cell function after adjusting for insulin sensitivity, was the only independent factor correlated with CGI (P < 0.01). Our findings indicate that the CGI derived from the CGM data may serve as a novel marker to evaluate glucose homeostasis.
Humans ; Glucose ; Blood Glucose ; Insulin Resistance/physiology* ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/diagnosis* ; Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring ; Time Factors ; Insulin

Skeletal muscle is the largest organ of human body, which completes 80%-90% of glucose intake stimulated by insulin, and is closely related to the occurrence and development of insulin resistance (IR). Skeletal muscle is one of the main places of lipid metabolism, and lipid metabolites participate in skeletal muscle metabolism as signal molecules. Fatty acids regulate skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity through insulin signaling pathway, inflammatory response and mitochondrial function. Saturated fatty acids (SFAs) induce insulin resistance by impairing insulin signal transduction, inducing mitochondrial dysfunction and inflammatory response, while unsaturated fatty acids reverse the adverse effects of SFAs and ameliorate IR by enhancing insulin signal transduction and anti-inflammatory effect. In addition, disorders of lipid metabolism in skeletal muscle cause accumulation of harmful metabolic intermediates, such as diacylglycerol, ceramide and long-chain acyl-coenzyme A, and induce IR by directly or indirectly damaging insulin signaling pathway. This article reviews the research progress of lipid metabolic intermediates regulating insulin sensitivity in skeletal muscle, which will help to better understand the pathogenesis of diabetes.
Humans ; Insulin Resistance/physiology* ; Muscle, Skeletal/metabolism* ; Insulin/metabolism* ; Lipid Metabolism ; Fatty Acids/metabolism*

Exosome is a kind of nanoscale-size extracellular vesicles secreted by the means of cell active stimulation with outer membrane structure of vacuoles corpuscle. It can carry and transfer a lot of biological molecules, such as DNA fragments, circular RNA (circRNA), messenger RNA (mRNA), microRNA (miRNA), functional proteins, transcription factors, etc., so as to achieve the goal of information transmission between cells. The relationship between exosomes and diabetes has received extensive attention in recent years. The exosomes play an important role in insulin sensitivity, glucose homeostasis and vascular endothelial function. This paper reviews the role of exosomes in the occurrence and development of diabetes and its complications, and discusses the role and prospect of exosomes as a target for diabetes treatment and its role in the diagnosis and treatment of diabetes.
Diabetes Mellitus ; diagnosis ; physiopathology ; therapy ; Exosomes ; metabolism ; Humans ; Insulin Resistance ; physiology ; MicroRNAs ; metabolism ; RNA, Messenger ; metabolism

The influence of β-cell function on cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy (CAN), an important diabetes-related complication, is still unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association between residual β-cell function and CAN in patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. We enrolled 90 newly-diagnosed type 2 diabetic patients and 37 participants with normal glucose tolerance as controls. The patients were divided into a CAN+ group (diabetic patients with CAN, n = 20) and a CAN- group (diabetic patients without CAN, n = 70) according to the standard Ewing battery of tests. Fasting and postprandial plasma glucose, insulin, and C-peptide were measured. Homeostasis model assessment-beta cells (HOMA-B) and HOMA-insulin resistance (IR) were calculated. The prevalence of CAN in this population was 22.2%. Compared with the CAN- group, the CAN+ group had significantly lower fasting plasma insulin (6.60 ± 4.39 vs 10.45 ± 7.82 μ/L, P = 0.029), fasting C-peptide (0.51 ± 0.20 vs 0.82 ± 0.51 nmol/L, P = 0.004), and HOMA-B (21.44 ± 17.06 vs 44.17 ± 38.49, P = 0.002). Fasting C-peptide was correlated with the Valsalva ratio (r = 0.24, P = 0.043) and the 30:15 test (r = 0.26, P = 0.023). Further analysis showed that fasting C-peptide (OR: 0.041, 95% CI 0.003-0.501, P = 0.012) and HOMA-B (OR: 0.965, 95% CI 0.934-0.996, P = 0.028) were independently associated with cardiovascular autonomic nerve function in this population. The patients with fasting C-peptide values < 0.67 nmol/L were more likely to have CAN than those with C-peptide levels ≥0.67 nmol/L (OR: 6.00, 95% CI 1.815-19.830, P = 0.003). A high prevalence of CAN was found in patients with newly-diagnosed type 2 diabetes. Decreased β-cell function was closely associated with CAN in this population.
Adult ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Blood Glucose ; analysis ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; complications ; metabolism ; Diabetic Neuropathies ; etiology ; Fasting ; physiology ; Female ; Glucose ; metabolism ; Humans ; Insulin ; metabolism ; Insulin Resistance ; physiology ; Insulin-Secreting Cells ; metabolism ; Male ; Middle Aged

Insulin resistance is a common pathophysiological mechanism of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Skeletal muscle is one of the major target organs of insulin-mediated glucose uptake, metabolism and utilization, and it is the earliest and most important site of insulin resistance. Studies have shown that the impairments of glucose uptake, insulin signaling pathway and mitochondrial biosynthesis are closely related to skeletal muscle insulin resistance. When insulin resistance develops in skeletal muscle, multiple microRNAs (miRNAs) are up-regulated (miR-106b, miR-23a, miR-761, miR-135a, Let-7 and miR-29a) or down-regulated (miR-133a, miR-149 and miR-1). They participate in the regulation of skeletal muscle glucose uptake, insulin signaling pathway and mitochondrial biogenesis, and thus play important roles in the occurrence and development of skeletal muscle insulin resistance. Therefore, these miRNAs may serve as potential targets for the treatment of skeletal muscle insulin resistance or diabetes.
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; Humans ; Insulin ; Insulin Resistance ; MicroRNAs ; genetics ; Muscle, Skeletal ; physiology

More and more evidence suggests that microRNA is widely involved in the regulation of cardiovascular function. Our preliminary experiment showed that miR-494-3p was increased in heart of diabetic rats, and miR-494-3p was reported to be related to metabolism such as obesity and exercise. Therefore, this study was aimed to explore the role of miR-494-3p in diabetic myocardial insulin sensitivity and the related mechanism. The diabetic rat model was induced by high fat diet (45 kcal% fat, 12 weeks) combined with streptozotocin (STZ, 30 mg/kg), and cardiac tissue RNA was extracted for qPCR. The results showed that the level of miR-494-3p was significantly up-regulated in the myocardium of diabetic rats compared with the control (P < 0.05). The level of miR-494-3p in H9c2 cells cultured in high glucose and high fat medium (HGHF) was significantly increased (P < 0.01) with the increase of sodium palmitate concentration, whereas down-regulation of miR-494-3p in HGHF treated cells led to an increase in insulin-stimulated glucose uptake (P < 0.01) and the ratio of p-Akt/Akt (P < 0.05). Over-expression of miR-494-3p in H9c2 cell line significantly inhibited insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and phosphorylation of Akt (P < 0.01). Bioinformatics combined with Western blotting experiments confirmed insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS1) as a target molecule of miR-494-3p. These results suggest that miR-494-3p reduces insulin sensitivity in diabetic cardiomyocytes by down-regulating IRS1.
Animals ; Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental ; physiopathology ; Down-Regulation ; Insulin ; Insulin Receptor Substrate Proteins ; physiology ; Insulin Resistance ; MicroRNAs ; genetics ; Myocytes, Cardiac ; physiology ; Rats

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) are highly prevalent diseases and are closely associated, with NAFLD being present in the majority of T2DM patients. In Asian traditional medicine, Mori Cortex is widely used for the treatment of diabetes and hyperlipidemia. However, whether it has a therapeutic effect on T2DM associated with NAFLD is still unknown. The present study showed that the oral treatment with Mori Cortex extract (MCE; 10 g·kg·d) lowered the blood lipid levels and reversed insulin resistance (IR) in high fat-diet/streptozotocin-induced type 2 diabetes in rats. The expression levels of sterol receptor element-binding protein-1c (SREBP-1c) and carbohydrate-responsive element binding protein (ChREBP), which are involved in steatosis in NAFLD rats, were measured in the liver samples. MCE decreased the protein and mRNA expression levels of SREBP-1c and ChREBP. In conclusion, down-regulation of SREBP-1c and ChREBP might contribute to the protective effect of MCE on hepatic injury and IR in the rats with T2DM associated with NAFLD.
Alanine Transaminase ; blood ; Animals ; Aspartate Aminotransferases ; blood ; Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors ; genetics ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; blood ; chemically induced ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; Diet, High-Fat ; adverse effects ; Disease Models, Animal ; Down-Regulation ; drug effects ; Insulin ; blood ; Insulin Resistance ; physiology ; Lipid Metabolism ; drug effects ; genetics ; Liver ; drug effects ; physiopathology ; Male ; Morus ; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease ; blood ; chemically induced ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; Phytotherapy ; Plant Extracts ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Streptozocin

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies have suggested that noise exposure may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and experimental studies have demonstrated that noise exposure can induce insulin resistance in rodents. The aim of the present study was to explore noise-induced processes underlying impaired insulin sensitivity in mice. METHODS: Male ICR mice were randomly divided into four groups: a control group without noise exposure and three noise groups exposed to white noise at a 95-dB sound pressure level for 4 h/day for 1, 10, or 20 days (N1D, N10D, and N20D, respectively). Systemic insulin sensitivity was evaluated at 1 day, 1 week, and 1 month post-noise exposure (1DPN, 1WPN, and 1MPN) via insulin tolerance tests (ITTs). Several insulin-related processes, including the phosphorylation of Akt, IRS1, and JNK in the animals' skeletal muscles, were examined using standard immunoblots. Biomarkers of inflammation (circulating levels of TNF-α and IL-6) and oxidative stress (SOD and CAT activities and MDA levels in skeletal muscles) were measured via chemical analyses. RESULTS: The data obtained in this study showed the following: (1) The impairment of systemic insulin sensitivity was transient in the N1D group but prolonged in the N10D and N20D groups. (2) Noise exposure led to enhanced JNK phosphorylation and IRS1 serine phosphorylation as well as reduced Akt phosphorylation in skeletal muscles in response to exogenous insulin stimulation. (3) Plasma levels of TNF-α and IL-6, CAT activity, and MDA concentrations in skeletal muscles were elevated after 20 days of noise exposure. CONCLUSIONS Impaired insulin sensitivity in noise-exposed mice might be mediated by an enhancement of the JNK/IRS1 pathway. Inflammation and oxidative stress might contribute to insulin resistance after chronic noise exposure.
Animals ; Biomarkers ; metabolism ; Inflammation ; physiopathology ; Insulin Receptor Substrate Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Insulin Resistance ; genetics ; immunology ; MAP Kinase Signaling System ; physiology ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred ICR ; Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 8 ; genetics ; metabolism ; Noise ; adverse effects ; Oxidative Stress ; physiology ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt ; genetics ; metabolism ; Random Allocation ; Time Factors

Animals ; Cognitive Dysfunction ; metabolism ; Cystatin C ; pharmacology ; Hippocampus ; drug effects ; Insulin Resistance ; physiology ; Neurons ; drug effects ; Rats ; Rodentia