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The Effect of Cocoa Flavanols and Metabolites on β‐cell Proliferation and Survival
Author(s) -
Austin Matthew C.,
Smyth Brooke J.,
Manwaring Lauren P.,
López G. Moroni,
Ross Mimi T.,
Tessem Jeffery Sivert
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2019.33.1_supplement.694.18
Subject(s) - cell growth , hippuric acid , metabolite , diabetes mellitus , type 2 diabetes , insulin resistance , cell , chemistry , biology , food science , medicine , endocrinology , biochemistry , urine
Currently, an estimated 30.3 million Americans have diabetes, and experts predict 54.9 million Americans will have diabetes by 2030. The increasing prevalence of Type 2 diabetes (T2D) accounts for much of this expected growth. T2D is characterized by insulin resistance, which eventually leads to a reduction in functional β‐cell mass. Thus, treatments that increase β‐cell proliferation, survival, and function have the potential to reverse the effects of diabetes. One treatment that has shown promise is the use of dietary cocoa flavanols. These compounds have shown the ability to prevent the onset of diabetes in mice. Furthermore, a recent study conducted by our lab demonstrated that monomeric cocoa flavanols improved insulin secretion by increasing mitochondrial respiration. In addition to stimulating insulin secretion, we hypothesize that cocoa flavanols may also confer antidiabetic effects by promoting β‐cell proliferation and protecting β‐cells from lipotoxicity‐mediated cell death. To that end, we present data that shows the effect of epicatechin (monomeric flavanol), oligomeric, and polymeric cocoa flavanols on β‐cell proliferation and survival. Our results demonstrated that epicatechin enhances β‐cell proliferation. This finding is important because only monomeric flavanols have been found at significant levels in circulation. Notably, several gut bacteria‐derived cocoa metabolites have also been observed and identified. Consequently, we tested the effects of several cocoa metabolites on β‐cell proliferation and survival as well. We found that the cocoa metabolite hippuric acid, also enhances β‐cell proliferation. Additionally, we suggest a mechanism for the observed increase in proliferation caused by epicatechin and hippuric acid. These findings strengthen the growing body of evidence that dietary cocoa flavanols can ameliorate the effects of T2D. Support or Funding Information Diabetes Action Research and Education Foundation grant #475 to JST This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .