Transcriptome Analysis for the Effect of Tartary Buckwheat Polysaccharides on the Type 2 Diabetes Model Mice

Diabetes mellitus is the most common metabolic disease in the world. The clinical symptoms represent hyperglycemia and low insulin secretion. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) accounts for the majority of all diabetic patients (approximately 90%). Our previous study found that tartary buckwheat polysaccharides (TBP) had a good hypoglycemic effect on the T2DM model mice induced by streptozotocin (STZ). However, the underlying mechanism of TBP on hypoglycemic effect is still unclear. In the present study, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was applied to study the changes of transcriptome in the liver of mice in the T2DM model group. Compared with model group, 1191 DEGs (differently expressed genes) were screened in the TBP treatment group, in which 313 genes were up-regulated and 878 down-regulated. The KEGG, GO, and KOG analysis of DEGs indicated that many DEGs were associated with glycometabolism. In the T2DM pathway, there are only 5 DEGs including GLUT4, HK3, SOCS3, PYK, and GCK. qRT-PCR further confirm their expressions. All the results indicated that GLUT4, HK3, SOCS3, PYK, and GCK might play important roles in the hypoglycemic mechanism of TBP.