Punicalagin alleviates renal injury <i>via</i> the gut-kidney axis in high-fat diet-induced diabetic mice
Qinglian Hua, Yaling Han, Haifeng Zhao, Haowen Zhang, Bei Yan, Shengjie Pei, Xin He, Yue Li, Xiangyuan Meng, Lei Chen, Feng Zhong, Duo Li
Abstract
for 8 weeks. Targeted metabolomics by GC-MS and 16S rRNA sequencing were implemented to determine short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and microbes. Further RNA sequencing analyses were performed to determine which differentially expressed genes were changed by PU. Compared with the DM model group, PU supplementation improved diabetic renal injury, ameliorated kidney architecture and function, and reshaped gut microbial ecology. Additionally, PU reversed HFD-induced gut barrier dysfunction, promoted cecal SCFA concentrations and inhibited serum lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and diamine oxidase (DAO) levels. Moreover, correlation analysis found that cecal SCFAs were significantly negatively correlated with inflammation-related genes in the kidney. The present results indicated that PU, a promising bioactive polyphenol, successfully improved diabetic renal injury, most likely through the gut-kidney axis.