ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
This article is part of the Research TopicTargeting Dysregulation in Metabolic Diseases: Potential Therapeutic InterventionView all articles
Troxerutin, an efficient herbal metabolite with anti-diabetic and anti-hypercholesterolemic potential, regulates metabolic genes in male diabetic rats
Provisionally accepted
Saira Gul1
Mahrukh Naseem1
Irfan Shahzad Sheikh1*
Hafiz Muhammad Ali2Imtiaz Rabbani3
Tariq Jamil4Sehar Gul1
Zaid Chachar5Sana Ullah1Saima Asif6
Farid Shokry Ataya7Dalia Fouad7*
Kasim Sakran Abass8
Yuanzhe Cai9
Jieren Liu9
Feijuan HUANG10*- 1University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan
- 2The Islamia University of Bahawalpur Pakistan, Bahawalpur, Pakistan
- 3University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan
- 4Freie Universitat Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- 5The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
- 6Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan
- 7King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- 8University of Kirkuk, Kirkuk, Iraq
- 9Shenzhen Technology University, Shenzhen, China
- 10Shenzhen Second People's Hospital, Shenzhen, China
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Background/ObjectiveBackground/Objectives: ThisThe study evaluated the anti-diabetic and antihypercholesterolemicanti-hypercholesterolemic potential of the botanical metabolite troxerutin (TRX) compared with metformin in high-fat diet-inducedhigh-fat diet fed streptozotocin induced diabetes in male Wistar rats. . Methods: The rats (n=48) were divided into six groups, diabetes was induced in the treatment groups and different doses of troxerutin (TRX): 25mg/kg/day (TRX25-D), 50mg/kg/day (TRX50-D), 75mg/kg/day (TRX75-D) or standard drug (10mg/kg/day; MET10-D) were given for a period of 7 weeks, compared to negative (non-diabetic control: NDC) and positive (diabetic control; DC) control groups. At the end of the trial period, serum was collected to determine the lipid profile (HDL, LDL, VLDL) and the concentration of hepatic (AST, ALT), renal (urea, creatinine), and oxidative stress (CAT, MDA) markers.Adipose tissue, skeletal muscles and liver tissue samples were collected to determine mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory (TNF-α, IL-6) and genes involved in lipid metabolism (PPARα, PPARγ, FAS, SREBP-1c). Results: The results showed a significant decrease (p<0.05) in total cholesterol, triglycerides, VLDL and LDL levels, hepatic, renal and stress markers in the rats treated with higher (TRX75-D) concentration of troxerutin compared to diabetic control rats. Moreover, troxerutin significantly (p<0.05) up-regulated PPARα and PPARγ, while the expression of FAS, SREBP-1c, TNF-α and IL-6 genes was significantly (p<0.05) down-regulated simultaneously in the adipose tissue, skeletal muscles and liver in a dose dependent manner, compared to diabetic ct control rats. Conclusions: It was concluded that Troxerutintroxerutin has significant antidiabeticanti-diabetic and antihypercholesterolemicanti-hypercholesterolemic potential and thus could be safely used as an alternative therapeutic compound as compared to the standard antidiabeticanti-diabetic drug; metformin.
Keywords: Lipid metabolic genes, lipid profile, Metformin, mRNAexpression, Rats, Troxerutin, type 2 diabetes
Received: 25 Aug 2025; Accepted: 10 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gul, Naseem, Sheikh, Ali, Rabbani, Jamil, Gul, Chachar, Ullah, Asif, Ataya, Fouad, Abass, Cai, Liu and HUANG. 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:
Irfan Shahzad Sheikh
Dalia Fouad
Feijuan HUANG
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