{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,7]],"date-time":"2026-09-07T22:36:30Z","timestamp":1788820590678,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,1,15]],"date-time":"2018-01-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1515974400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nutrients"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 prevalence is increasing worldwide; thus efforts to develop novel therapeutic strategies are required. Amaranthus caudatus (AC) is a pseudo-cereal with reported anti-diabetic effects that is usually consumed in food preparations in Bolivia. This study evaluated the anti-diabetic nutraceutical property of an AC hydroethanolic extract that contains mainly sugars and traces of polyphenols and amino acids (as shown by nalysis with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)), in type 2 diabetic Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rats and healthy Wistar (W) rats. A single oral administration of AC extract (2000 mg\/kg body weight) improved glucose tolerance during Oral Glucose Tolerance Tests (OGTT) in both GK rats and in W rats. Long-term treatment (21 days) with AC (1000 mg\/kg b.w.) improved the glucose tolerance evaluated by the area under the curve (AUC) of glucose levels during the OGTT, in both GK and W rats. The HbA1c levels were reduced in both GK (19.83%) and W rats (10.7%). This effect was secondary to an increase in serum insulin levels in both GK and W rats and confirmed in pancreatic islets, isolated from treated animals, where the chronic AC exposure increased the insulin production 4.1-fold in GK and 3.7-fold in W rat islets. Furthermore, the effect of AC on in vitro glucose-dependent insulin secretion (16.7 mM glucose) was concentration-dependent up to 50 mg\/mL, with 8.5-fold increase in GK and 5.7-fold in W rat islets, and the insulin secretion in perifused GK and W rat islets increased 31 and nine times, respectively. The mechanism of action of AC on insulin secretion was shown to involve calcium, PKA and PKC activation, and G-protein coupled-exocytosis since the AC effect was reduced 38% by nifedipine (L-type channel inhibitor), 77% by H89 (PKA inhibitor), 79% by Calphostine-C (PKC inhibitor) and 20% by pertussis toxin (G-protein suppressor).<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nu10010094","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,1,15]],"date-time":"2018-01-15T12:30:36Z","timestamp":1516019436000},"page":"94","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":27,"title":["Amaranthus caudatus Stimulates Insulin Secretion in Goto-Kakizaki Rats, a Model of Diabetes Mellitus Type 2"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Silvia","family":"Zambrana","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Investigaciones Farmaco Bioquimicas, Universidad Mayor de San Andres, Avenida Saavedra 2224, La Paz 2314, Bolivia"},{"name":"Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lena C. E.","family":"Lundqvist","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Molecular Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7015, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Virginia","family":"Veliz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Investigaciones Farmaco Bioquimicas, Universidad Mayor de San Andres, Avenida Saavedra 2224, La Paz 2314, Bolivia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sergiu-Bogdan","family":"Catrina","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden"},{"name":"Department of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes, Karolinska University Hospital, 141 86 Stockholm, Sweden"},{"name":"Centrum for Diabetes, Academic Specialist Centrum, 141 86 Stockholm, Sweden"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Eduardo","family":"Gonzales","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Investigaciones Farmaco Bioquimicas, Universidad Mayor de San Andres, Avenida Saavedra 2224, La Paz 2314, Bolivia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Claes-G\u00f6ran","family":"\u00d6stenson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,1,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"241","DOI":"10.1046\/j.1365-201x.2001.00826.x","article-title":"The pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes mellitus: An overview","volume":"171","author":"Ostenson","year":"2001","journal-title":"Acta Physiol. 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