Hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) extract on C57BL/KsJ db/db mice

Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L. (BV)) is one of the most important economic crops. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects and mechanism of BV on the glucolipid metabolism. The study was conducted on C57BL/KsJ db/db mice, and the experiments were divided into four groups: diabetic control (distilled water, db/db-Veh), metformin treatment (metformin, db/db-Met, 250 mg/kg), and BV treatment (BV, db/db, 1.8 and 3.6 g/kg of BV). The metformin and BV were intragastrically administrated into mice. The results showed that the treatment with BV resulted in the decreased levels of the fasting blood glucose (FBG), uric acid (UA), and lipid, as well as improving the abnormalities of liver and pancreas. The protein levels of insulin receptor substrate‐1 (IRS‐1)/PI3K/AKT and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)/acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) were quantified by Western blotting. The results showed that the hypoglycemic effect was partly due to the activation of the IRS‐1/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, and the AMPK/ACC signaling pathway was responsible for the hypolipidemic activity. This study demonstrated that BV possesses hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects on diabetic db/db mice, indicating that it can be contributed to the treatment of type 2 diabetes.