Pomegranate peel polyphenols alleviate insulin resistance through the promotion of insulin signaling pathway in skeletal muscle of metabolic syndrome rats

Insulin resistance(IR) has been considered to be an important causative factor of metabolic syndrome(Met S). The present study investigated whether pomegranate peel polyphenols(PPPs) could prevent the development of Met S by improving IR in rats. Male Sprague-Dawley(SD) rats were fed high fat diet(HFD) to induce Met S and supplemented with different dosages of PPPs for 12 weeks. The results showed that HFD-induced insulin resistant rats had disordered metabolism of blood glucose, blood lipid, and terrible muscle fiber morphology when compared with normal diet-fed rats, but PPPs treatment at a dosage of 300 mg/kg·day significantly reversed these negative effects. Moreover, in skeletal muscle tissue of insulin resistant rats, PPPs treatments significantly increased the protein expressions of insulin receptor(Ins R) and phosphorylated insulin receptor substrate 1(IRS-1), stimulated peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma(PPARγ) and phosphoinositide 3-kinase(PI3K)/protein kinase B(AKT/PKB) signaling pathway, and aggrandized the protein levels of phosphorylated glycogen synthase kinase-3β(GSK-3β) and glucose transporter 4(GLUT4). Our results suggest that PPPs possess of the beneficial effects on alleviating IR by enhancing insulin sensitivity and regulating glucose metabolism.

A semi-classical model for the charge exchange and energy loss of slow highly charged ions in ultrathin materials

We present a simple and reliable method,based on the over-barrier model and Lindhard’s formula,to calculate the energy loss,charge transfer,and normalized intensity of highly charged ions penetrating through 2D ultrathin materials,including graphene and carbon nanomembranes.According to our results,the interaction between the ions and the 2D material can be simplified as an equivalent two-body collision,and we find that full consideration of the charge exchange effect is key to understanding the mechanism of ion energy deposition in an ultrathin target.Not only can this semiclassical model be used to evaluate the ion irradiation effect to a very good level of accuracy,but it also provides important guidance for tailoring the properties of 2D materials using ion beams.