- Erratum in:
- Chem Biol. 2008 May;15(5):520.
Antidiabetic activities of triterpenoids isolated from bitter melon associated with activation of the AMPK pathway.
Tan MJ,
Ye JM,
Turner N,
Hohnen-Behrens C,
Ke CQ,
Tang CP,
Chen T,
Weiss HC,
Gesing ER,
Rowland A,
James DE,
Ye Y.
State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China.
Four cucurbitane glycosides, momordicosides Q, R, S, and T, and stereochemistry-established karaviloside XI, were isolated from the vegetable bitter melon (Momordica charantia). These compounds and their aglycones exhibited a number of biologic effects beneficial to diabetes and obesity. In both L6 myotubes and 3T3-L1 adipocytes, they stimulated GLUT4 translocation to the cell membrane--an essential step for inducible glucose entry into cells. This was associated with increased activity of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), a key pathway mediating glucose uptake and fatty acid oxidation. Furthermore, momordicoside(s) enhanced fatty acid oxidation and glucose disposal during glucose tolerance tests in both insulin-sensitive and insulin-resistant mice. These findings indicate that cucurbitane triterpenoids, the characteristic constituents of M. charantia, may provide leads as a class of therapeutics for diabetes and obesity.
PMID: 18355726 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]