Sodium Butyrate Improves Liver Glycogen Metabolism in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Liver plays a central role in modulating blood glucose level. Our most recent findings suggested that supplementation with microbiota metabolite sodium butyrate (NaB) could ameliorate progression of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and decrease blood HbA1c in db/db mice. To further investigate the role of butyrate in homeostasis of blood glucose and glycogen metabolism, we carried out the present study. In db/db mice, we found significant hypertrophy and steatosis in hepatic lobules accompanied by reduced glycogen storage, and expression of GPR43 was significantly decreased by 59.38 ± 3.33%; NaB administration significantly increased NaB receptor G-protein coupled receptor 43 (GPR43) level and increased glycogen storage in both mice and HepG2 cells. Glucose transporter 2 (GLUT2) and sodium-glucose cotransporter 1 (SGLT1) on cell membrane were upregulated by NaB. The activation of intracellular signaling Protein kinase B (PKB), also known as AKT, was inhibited while glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) was activated by NaB in both in vivo and in vitro studies. The present study demonstrated that microbiota metabolite NaB possessed beneficial effects on preserving blood glucose homeostasis by promoting glycogen metabolism in liver cells, and the GPR43-AKT-GSK3 signaling pathway should contribute to this effect.

Slurry sampling flow injection chemical vapor generation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for the determination of trace Ge, As, Cd, Sb, Hg and Bi in cosmetic lotions.

A slurry sampling inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) method has been developed for the determination of Ge, As, Cd, Sb, Hg and Bi in cosmetic lotions using flow injection (FI) vapor generation (VG) as the sample introduction system. A slurry containing 2% m/v lotion, 2% m/v thiourea, 0.05% m/v L-cysteine, 0.5 µg mL(-1) Co(II), 0.1% m/v Triton X-100 and 1.2% v/v HCl was injected into a VG-ICP-MS system for the determination of Ge, As, Cd, Sb, Hg and Bi without dissolution and mineralization. Because the sensitivities of the analytes in the slurry and that of aqueous solution were quite different, an isotope dilution method and a standard addition method were used for the determination. This method has been validated by the determination of Ge, As, Cd, Sb, Hg and Bi in GBW09305 Cosmetic (Cream) reference material. The method was also applied for the determination of Ge, As, Cd, Sb, Hg and Bi in three cosmetic lotion samples obtained locally. The analysis results of the reference material agreed with the certified value and/or ETV-ICP-MS results. The detection limit estimated from the standard addition curve was 0.025, 0.1, 0.2, 0.1, 0.15, and 0.03 ng g(-1) for Ge, As, Cd, Sb, Hg and Bi, respectively, in original cosmetic lotion sample.