Combination of honey with metformin enhances glucose metabolism and ameliorates hepatic and nephritic dysfunction in STZ-induced diabetic mice

Food Funct. 2019 Nov 1;10(11):7576-7587. doi: 10.1039/c9fo01575b. Epub 2019 Nov 5.

Abstract

Honey is a natural sweetener that contains a large amount of monosaccharides such as glucose and fructose, as well as small amounts of disaccharides and trisaccharides such as sucrose and pine trisaccharides. In addition to carbohydrates, honey also contains vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids, and polyphenols including phenolic acids and flavonoids. The polyphenols in honey have been proved to have great antioxidant activity, besides inhibiting α-glycosidase activity and improving blood-lipid metabolism. However, whether it is safe for diabetic patients to consume honey remains controversial. This study investigated the effects of honey, metformin and their combination on the characteristic pathological changes and glucose metabolism in STZ-induced diabetic mice over five weeks. Our results showed that honey and its combination with metformin could prevent hyperglycemia, stimulate insulin secretion, reduce liver fat accumulation, attenuate liver injury and kidney damage in STZ-induced diabetic mice. Moreover, treatment with honey or combination of honey and metformin significantly enhanced glucokinase (GK) activity (p < 0.05), and meanwhile suppressed the activities of glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase), phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK), pyruvate carboxylase (PC) and pyruvate dehydrogenase kinases (PDK) (p < 0.05) in diabetic mice.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Blood Glucose / drug effects
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental / drug therapy*
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / drug therapy
  • Glucose / metabolism*
  • Honey* / analysis
  • Kidney / drug effects*
  • Liver / drug effects*
  • Male
  • Metformin / administration & dosage
  • Metformin / therapeutic use*
  • Mice
  • Phenols / chemistry
  • Random Allocation
  • Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms
  • Weight Gain / drug effects

Substances

  • Blood Glucose
  • Phenols
  • Metformin
  • Glucose