Beales, Joseph; Lloyd, Trevor; Krueger, Emily; Barlow, Andrew (Brigham Young University)
Faculty Advisor: Tessem, Jeffery (Life Sciences; Nutritional, Dietetics, and Food Science)
Worldwide, an estimated 415 million people suffer from diabetes.1 Diabetes is characterized by chronic dysfunction of the pancreatic ß-cell, which leads to unregulated insulin secretion and abnormal blood glucose levels. Therefore, methods which increase the number of ß-cells or improve their function have potential for complementary treatment of type 2 diabetes. Compounds such as antioxidants and their gut metabolites have received attention in literature as having potential ß-cell-regulating properties.2,3 Therefore, we hypothesize that supplementation of grape seed extract (GSE), which is rich in antioxidants, will enhance ß-cell proliferation and insulin secretion. Accordingly, we obtained metabolites, derived from rats on either a control or grape seed extract diet, to measure the metabolites' impact on ß-cell function through in vitro assays such as glucose stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) and 3H-thymidine incorporation. Discoveries regarding GSE metabolites' effects on ß-cell function could be fundamental to understanding ß-cell regulation and potential pharmaceutical or dietary treatments for diabetes.
1 Ogurtsova, K., et al. "IDF Diabetes Atlas: Global Estimates for the Prevalence of Diabetes for 2015 and 2040." Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, Elsevier, 31 Mar. 2017, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168822717303753?via%3Dihub.
2 Bajaj, Sarita, and Afreen Khan. "Antioxidants and diabetes." Indian journal of endocrinology and metabolism vol. 16,Suppl 2 (2012): S267-71. Doi:10.4103/2230-8210.104057
3 Tsuda, Takanori. "Recent Progress in Anti-Obesity and Anti-Diabetes Effect of Berries." MDPI, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 6 Apr. 2016, www.mdpi.com/2076-3921/5/2/13.