Gene Expression and Microarray Investigation of Dendrobium Mixture as Progressive Therapy for the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Purpose: To examine the gene expression profile, as well as blood sugar-lowering and lipid-lowering molecular mechanisms of Dendrobium mixtures in a diabetic rat model . Methods: Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were fed high-fat/high-glucose for 16 months. Those with random blood glucose 16.7 mmol/L were used as the model group and treated with Dendrobium mixture (DEN, containing Dendrobium, Astragalus, Schisandra, etc) in clinically equivalent dose (12 g/kg). The liver RNA of the rats in all three groups (control, model and DEN) was used for Agilent genome expression microarray testing and subsequent data analysis. Result: Between the diabetic rat group and the wild-type group, 1339 functional genes showed differences in expression levels (p 0.05). After Dendrobium treatment, only 380 genes showed differences in expression (p 0.05). The expression level of nearly 1000 genes returned to normal after drug treatment (compared with the wild-type group, p 0.05). Genes whose expression normalized were mainly those affected by the disease state and associated with glucose and lipid metabolism, cell growth, apoptosis, biosynthesis, olfactory receptors, or cytoskeletal proteins. Conclusion: Progressive therapy with Dendrobium mixture, which has glucose- and lipid-lowering effects, is associated with multi-gene expression pathways. By treating diabetic r and wild-type rats with the mixture, the disorder is further understood at the transcriptomic level.