Background: Diabetic complications seriously endanger the health of most diabetic patients around the world. Most chemical hypoglycemic agents have adverse effects and are unable to improve the progression of diabetic complications. In recent years, a number of medicinal herbs have become increasingly popular for the treatment of diabetic complications due to their relative safety. Polysaccharides extracted from medicinal herbs with multiple pharmacological activities and low toxicity have been reported to be useful in the treatment of diabetic complications. Methods: Primary studies with keywords including polysaccharide and diabetic complications were retrieved from the Web of Science and NCBI databases and were read and analyzed. Results: Mushroom polysaccharides were proven to have positive effects on diabetic complications. Conclusions: We studied the effects of mushroom polysaccharides on hyperglycemia and as adjuvant therapies for diabetic complications and summarized the applications and limitations of mushroom polysaccharides to better understand their application for the treatment of diabetic complications.

evodiamine (evo) is an alkaloid that can be extracted from the berry fruit Evodia rutaecarpa and has been reported to exert various pharmacological effects, such as antidiarrheal, antiemetic and antiulcer effects. In vivo, the potential effects of evo were investigated in a mouse model of dextran sodium sulfate (dSS)-induced ulcerative colitis (uc) and in adenomatous polyposis coli (apc) Minc /Gpt c57Bl/6 mice with colorectal cancer (crc), where the latter harbours a point-mutation in the Apc gene. evo suppressed the degree of weight loss and colon shortening induced by dSS, decreased the disease activity index value and ameliorated the pathological alterations in the colon of mice with uc as examined via H&e staining of colon tissues. in addition, evo decreased the number and size of colonic tumors in apc Minc /Gpt mice. Proteomics (colon tissues), eliSa (colon tissues and serum) and western blotting (colon tissues) results revealed that evo inhibited nF-κB to mediate the levels of various cytokines, including, in the dSS-induced uc model, il-1β, il-2, il-6, il-8, TnF-α, iFn-γ (eliSa of colon tissues and serum), nF-κB, iKKα+β, iκBα, S100a9, Tlr4 and Myd88 (western blotting of colon tissues), and, in the colorectal cancer model, il-1β, il-2, il-6, il-15, il-17, il-22, TnF-α (eliSa of colon tissues and serum), nF-κB, iKKα+β, iκBα and S100a9 (western blotting of colon tissues), to achieve its anti-inflammatory and antitumor effects. In vitro, evo also reduced the viability of the colon cancer cell line SW480, inhibited mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP detection), caused G 2 /M-phase arrest (cell cycle detection) and suppressed the translocation of phosphorylated-nF-κB from the cytoplasm into the nucleus (immunofluorescence of p-NF-κB). Theoretical evidence (Md simulations) suggest that evo may bind to the ordered domain (α-helix) of nF-κB to influence this protein. The protein secondary structure changes were analyzed by the cpptraj module in amber. in addition, these data provide experimental evidence that evo may be an effective agent for treating uc and crc.

Protein hydrolysate injection (PH) is a sterile solution of hydrolyzed protein and sorbitol that contains 17 amino acids and has a molecular mass of 185.0–622.0 g/mol. This study investigated the effect of PH on hematopoietic function in K562 cells and mice with cyclophosphamide (CTX)-induced hematopoietic dysfunction. In these myelosuppressed mice, PH increased the number of hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow (BM) and regulated the concentration of several factors related to hematopoietic function. PH restored peripheral blood cell concentrations and increased the numbers of hematopoietic stem cells and progenitor cells (HSPCs), B lymphocytes, macrophages, and granulocytes in the BM of CTX-treated mice. Moreover, PH regulated the concentrations of macrophage colony stimulating factor (M-CSF), interleukin (IL)-2, and other hematopoiesis-related cytokines in the serum, spleen, femoral condyle, and sternum. In K562 cells, the PH-induced upregulation of hematopoiesis-related proteins was inhibited by transfection with M-CSF siRNA. Therefore, PH might benefit the BM hematopoietic system via the regulation of M-CSF expression, suggesting a potential role for PH in the treatment of hematopoietic dysfunction caused by cancer therapy.

Yishen Bugu Ye (YSBGY), a traditional Chinese medicine comprising 12 types of medicinal herbs, is often prescribed in China to increase bone strength. In this study, the antiosteoporotic effects of YSBGY were investigated in C57BL/6 mice afflicted with dexamethasone-(Dex-) induced osteoporosis (OP). The results showed that YSBGY reduced the interstitial edema in the liver and kidney of mice with Dex-induced OP. It also increased the number of trabecular bone elements and chondrocytes in the femur, promoted cortical bone thickness and trabecular bone density, and modulated the OP-related indexes in the femur and tibia of OP mice. It also increased the serum concentrations of type I collagen, osteocalcin, osteopontin, bone morphogenetic protein-2, bone morphogenetic protein receptor type 2, C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen, and runt-related transcription factor-2 and reduced those of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase 5 and nuclear factor of activated T cells in these mice, suggesting that it improved osteoblast differentiation and suppressed osteoclast differentiation. The anti-inflammatory effect of YSBGY was confirmed by the increase in the serum concentrations of interleukin-(IL-) 33 and the decrease in concentrations of IL-1, IL-7, and tumor necrosis factor-α in OP mice. Furthermore, YSBGY enhanced the serum concentrations of superoxide dismutase and catalase in these mice, indicating that it also exerted antioxidative effects. This is the first study to confirm the antiosteoporotic effects of YSBGY in mice with Dex-induced OP, and it showed that these effects may be related to the YSBGYinduced modulation of the osteoblast/osteoclast balance and serum concentrations of inflammatory factors. These results provide experimental evidence supporting the use of YSBGY for supporting bone formation in the clinical setting.

Serum levels of growth hormone (GH: arithmetic mean of three measurements eight hours apart), somatomedin C (SmC), alkaline phosphatase activity and the bone isoenzyme of alkaline phosphatase (as the liver/bone isoenzyme ratio) were measured in 26 patients with acromegaly (11 men and 15 women; mean age 45.5 [24-66] years), 18 in the active and eight in the nonactive phase of the disease. Activity was characterized by a raised (660 [330-1149] ng/ml), inactivity by a normal (186 [40-300] ng/ml) SmC concentration. All 18 patients with active acromegaly had an abnormally low liver/bone isoenzyme ratio (mean of 0.66 [0.01-1.28]). In seven of the eight patients with inactive acromegaly it was within normal limits. Thus measurement of bone alkaline phosphatase, which is significantly cheaper than that of SmC, is suitable for assessing activity.