The Molecular Mechanism of Synergistic Effect of Capsaicin and Quercetin on the Glucose Metabolism in Small Intestine Using Caco-2 Monolayer Model
The present study was conducted to unravel the molecular mechanism underlying the synergistic effect of cap-saicin and quercetin on the regulation of glucose metabolism in small intestine.The Caco-2 monolayer model was estab-lished to investigate the effect of capsaicin and quercetin,both singly and combined,on the cell viability and cell mem-brane permeability.Additionally,western blotting was utilized to determine the expression levels of Occludin,cytoplasmic protein ZO-1,epidermal growth factor receptor(EGFR)and fibrillar muscle protein F-actin as well as key proteins in-volved in glucose transport including GLUT2,SGLT1 and Na+/K+-ATPase.Results showed that the cell viability of all treatment groups was higher than 75%,demonstrating no toxic effect of capsaicin and quercetin on Caco-2 cells.Admin-istration of capsaicin and quercetin increased the TEER values of Caco-2 monolayer model(315.70±26.65)Ω·cm2,which indicated smaller permeability and thus stronger barrier function.Furthermore,compared to the CK group,cap-saicin and quercetin treatments upregulated the expression levels of Occludin(>0.65),ZO-1(>0.51),EGFR(>0.19),and F-actin(>0.04),but downregulated that of GLUT2(>1.00),SGLT1(>0.78)and Na+/K+-ATPase(>0.87).In sum-mary,capsaicin and quercetin can exert a synergistic effect on the regulation of glucose metabolism in small intestine and high dose levels of capsaicin and quercetin at a ratio of 1∶3 was found to be optimal.The potential molecular mech-anism can be attributed to the enhancement of barrier function of small intestine and downregulation of key proteins in-volved in glucose transport,which consequently hinders glucose absorption to achieve a hypoglycemic effect.
capsaicinquercetinCaco-2 cell modelglucose metabolism in small intestinemolecular mechanism