Effects of ginseng peptides on the hypoglycemic activity and gut microbiota of a type 2 diabetes mellitus mice model

Ginseng peptide (GP) (100, 200, 400 mg/kg bw) lowered blood glucose levels, explored the relationship between GP and gut microbiota-based hypoglycemic effects. GP significantly reduced fasting blood glucose levels (25.38-13.37 mM), improved insulin resistance (IR) (9.78-5.02), considerably increased liver glycogen content (64.71-97.95 mg/g), glycolytic and gluconeogenesis enzyme activities in T2DM mice, significantly reduced free fatty acids (1.65-0.93 mM), triglycerides (1.55-0.66 mM), total cholesterol (14.75-5.43 mM), and low-density lipoprotein (4.12-2.36 mM) in the serum, significantly increased high-density lipoprotein levels (6.20-17.44 mM) to improve lipid metabolism disorders. According to colonic 16S rDNA sequencing results, GP-H regulated gut microbiota disorders and short chain fatty acid metabolism. Western blot analysis showed that GP could regulate glycogen synthesis, gluconeogenesis, and glucose transport by activating IRS-1/PI3K/Akt and AMPK signaling pathways and improve IR by inhibiting the mitochondrial apoptosis signaling pathway.