Research Progress on the Protective Effects of Active Components of Huangqi (Astragali Radix) on Pancreatic β-Cells

 

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Abstract

The potential application of Huangqi (Astragali Radix) in the treatment of diabetes mellitus (DM) has garnered increasing attention. β-cell dysfunction is one of the core mechanisms in the pathogenesis of DM and effectively protecting and restoring pancreatic β-cell function remains a key challenge in DM prevention and treatment. Studies have shown that the active components of Huangqi (Astragali Radix) can alleviate glucolipotoxicity-induced β-cell damage by promoting glucose uptake mediated by glucose transporter 4 (GLUT-4), inhibiting the Wnt1/β-catenin signaling pathway to reduce lipid deposition in liver and pancreatic tissues and upregulating peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα) gene expression. Additionally, Huangqi (Astragali Radix) can reduce cell apoptosis by mitigating endoplasmic reticulum stress, suppress pyroptosis via the NF-κB/NLRP3/TXNIP signaling pathway, and inhibit ferroptosis and autophagy to decrease β-cell death. Furthermore, Huangqi (Astragali Radix) can promote β-cell proliferation by modulating dedifferentiation and transdifferentiation, improve the islet microenvironment by regulating immune function and reducing M1 macrophage polarization, and may delay β-cell senescence. This review summarizes the research progress of active ingredients in Huangqi (Astragali Radix) in protecting pancreatic β-cell, which provides new insights and a scientific basis for its future application in DM prevention and treatment.

CRediT Authorship Contribution Statement

Liyi Yan: Investigation, and writing-original draft. Zhenhua Li: Supervision, and writing-review & editing. Yuan Chen: Conceptualization, funding acquisition, and writing-review & editing.

Publication History

Received: 02 January 2025

Accepted: 28 February 2025

Article published online:
27 June 2025

© 2025. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Oswald-Hesse-Straße 50, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

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