ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Clinical Diabetes
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1532560
Combined Effects of Yupingfeng and Metformin on Blood Glucose Levels and Intestinal Tissue in High-Fat Diet-Induced Type 2 Diabetic Rats
Provisionally accepted
- 1Affiliated Hospital of Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China
- 2Medical College, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
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This study investigated the effectiveness of a high-fat diet (HFD) in inducing type 2 diabetes in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats, and evaluated the combined therapeutic effects of Yupingfeng and metformin on glycemic index and intestinal histology. Sixty SD rats, equally divided by sex, were randomly allocated to six groups. Body weight was measured weekly, and food intake recorded. During the initial phase of model induction, blood glucose levels increased significantly, exceeding 17.26 mmol/L by week 8, which was significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.01). The experimental group received treatment for a total of 7 weeks. Beginning in the third week, the combined administration of Yupingfeng and metformin significantly reduced fasting insulin levels, blood glucose concentrations, and insulin resistance compared to the control group, with further marked reductions observed by the seventh week (P < 0.01). Lipid metabolism indicators, including triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TCHO), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), showed significant reductions in the treatment groups (P < 0.01). Liver and kidney function assessments showed that the combination therapy exhibited superior safety compared to single-drug treatments. In addition, haematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining revealed that high-fat diet-induced diabetes caused inflammatory changes in the duodenum and colon. However, the combination therapy markedly alleviated inflammatory symptoms. Overall, the combined treatment significantly improved blood glucose levels, biochemical parameters, and intestinal tissue integrity.
Keywords: Type 2 diabetes models, Blood sugar index, intestinal inflammation, combination therapy, SD rat
Received: 22 Nov 2024; Accepted: 25 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Guan, Xu and Hu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hui Liu, Affiliated Hospital of Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China
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