Effects of Astaxanthin on Inflammation and Insulin Resistance in a Mouse Model of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a condition in which a hormone made by the placenta prevents the body from using insulin effectively. It is important to find an effective treatment. A mouse model of GDM was used to testify the effects of astaxanthin on glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. Production of inflammatory cytokines, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and glucose transporter type 4 (GLUT4) translocation and insulin-related signaling were measured in the presence of astaxanthin both in vivo and in vitro. It was found that astaxanthin improved insulin sensitivity, glucose tolerance, and litter size of offspring and reduced birth weight of offspring and inflammation in GDM mouse. Moreover, astaxanthin increased GLUT4 translocating to membrane without altering its secretion/expression and glucose uptake and consumption in C2C12 skeletal muscle cells. Furthermore, ROS generation and insulin-related signaling inhibited by tumor necrosis factor α was restored by astaxanthin. It is concluded that astaxanthin has the potential to attenuate GDM symptoms by regulating inflammation and insulin resistance in skeletal muscle of pregnant mice. Our findings suggest that astaxanthin could be a promising and effective molecule to treat GDM.

The Putative Role of Astaxanthin in Neuroinflammation Modulation: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Potential

“…Similarly, astaxanthin could suppress the activation of the NOD-, LRR-, and pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome in macrophages (Peng et al, 2020). Moreover, multiple in vivo studies have revealed the anti-inflammatory effects of astaxanthin in different disease models, including non-alcoholic fatty liver (Bhuvaneswari et al, 2014;Ni et al, 2015;Chiu et al, 2016;Jia et al, 2016), hepatic injury or fibrosis Han et al, 2018;Liu et al, 2018;Zhang Z. et al, 2020), kidney injury (Guo et al, 2021), myocardial injury (Xie et al, 2020), diabetes mellitus (Feng et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2020;Zhuge et al, 2021), arthritis (Park MH. et al, 2020;Kumar et al, 2020), gastroenteritis inflammation (Han et al, 2020;Chen Y. et al, 2021), acute pancreatitis (Yasui et al, 2011), asthma (Hwang et al, 2017), atopic dermatitis (Park et al, 2018;Park et al, 2019), and hyperosmoticity-induced dry eye (Li H. et al, 2020).…”

Novel Mechanism for Tubular Injury in Nephropathic Cystinosis

“…Cumulatively, these studies establishes ATX as a promising therapeutic agent for the treatment of a wide variety of diseases by regulating autophagy. ATX aids in enhanced insulin-stimulated GLUT4 translocation to the plasma membrane by positively affecting the actin-cytoskeleton re-modeling (55, 56). Based on the research, one may speculate that ATX may have similar role in translocating V-ATPase transporter protein to the lysosomal/organelle surface, regulating the pH and autophagy in CTNS -/- RPTECs.…”

Anti-Inflammatory and Anticancer Effects of Microalgal Carotenoids

“…In relation to cardiovascular diseases, it has been recently described that ATX protected mouse heart against LPS-induced cardiac dysfunction by down-regulating MAPK and PI3K/Akt pathways with the consequent apoptosis inhibition [232]. In addition, several animal studies demonstrated the beneficial role of ATX in diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome since this carotenoid enhanced the lipid profile and glucose tolerance as well as reduced insulin resistance in a model of chemically induced diabetes [233] and gestational diabetes [234]. Another paper evidenced that PEGylated ATX had a higher antidiabetic effect than free ATX due to an enhancement in oral bioavailability [235].…”