title: Application of berberine on treating type 2 diabetes mellitus.
abstract: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) performs a good clinical practice and is showing a bright future in the treatment of diabetes mellitus (DM). TCM treatment has certain advantages of less toxicity and/or side effects, and herbs could provide multiple therapeutic effects. Berberine (BBR) is a classical natural medicine. In this review, we summarize the application of BBR in the treatment of DM from two aspects. First, modern pharmacological effects of BBR on glucose metabolism are summarized, such as improving insulin resistance, promoting insulin secretion, inhibiting gluconeogenesis in liver, stimulating glycolysis in peripheral tissue cells, modulating gut microbiota, reducing intestinal absorption of glucose, and regulating lipid metabolism. BBR is used to treat diabetic nephropathy (DPN), diabetic neuropathy (DN), and diabetic cardiomyopathy due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. Second, the clinical application of BBR is reviewed, such as listing some clinical trials on the effectiveness and safety of BBR, explaining applicable stage and syndrome, the reasonable dose and dose formulation, and the toxicity and/or side effects. This review provides scientific evidence about BBR, as well as introducing some traditional Chinese medical theory and clinical experience, in order to guide clinician to use BBR more suitably and reasonably.
authors: Department of Endocrinology, Guang'anmen Hospital of China, Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100054, China.
authors: Bing
authors: B
authors: Pang
authors: Laboratory of Molecular and Biology, Guang'anmen Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100054, China.
authors: Lin-Hua
authors: LH
authors: Zhao
authors: Department of Digestion, Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital University of Medicine Sciences, Beijing 100010, China.
authors: Qiang
authors: Q
authors: Zhou
authors: Department of Endocrinology, Guang'anmen Hospital of China, Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100054, China.
authors: Tian-Yu
authors: TY
authors: Zhao
authors: Department of Endocrinology, Guang'anmen Hospital of China, Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100054, China.
authors: Han
authors: H
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Endocrinology, Guang'anmen Hospital of China, Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100054, China.
authors: Cheng-Juan
authors: CJ
authors: Gu
authors: Department of Endocrinology, Guang'anmen Hospital of China, Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100054, China.
authors: Xiao-Lin
authors: XL
authors: Tong