2. Academic Validation
  3. Tea drinking effectively improves symptoms of diabetes and prevents hepatorenal damage in mice

Tea drinking effectively improves symptoms of diabetes and prevents hepatorenal damage in mice

  • Food Res Int. 2025 Jun:211:116502. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2025.116502.
Guangshan Zhao 1,  Lumin Yang 2,  Yueting Ge 3,  Zhengyang Qiu 4,  Dong Tang 5,  Yuying Fang 2,  Qiuyan Ban 6,  Chung S Yang 7,  Jinsong Zhang 8
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 National Key Laboratory for Tea Plant Germplasm Innovation and Resource Utilization, Joint Research Center for Food Nutrition and Health of IHM, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui, PR China; Innovative Research Team (in Science and Technology) in University of Henan Province, College of Food Science & Technology, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan, PR China.
  • 2 National Key Laboratory for Tea Plant Germplasm Innovation and Resource Utilization, Joint Research Center for Food Nutrition and Health of IHM, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui, PR China.
  • 3 Dabie Mountain Laboratory, Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang, Henan, PR China.
  • 4 Innovative Research Team (in Science and Technology) in University of Henan Province, College of Food Science & Technology, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan, PR China.
  • 5 Food Laboratory of Zhongyuan, Luohe, Henan, PR China.
  • 6 Department of Tea Science, College of Horticulture, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan, PR China.
  • 7 Department of Chemical Biology, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA; International Joint Research Laboratory of Tea Chemistry and Health Effects, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui, PR China. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 8 National Key Laboratory for Tea Plant Germplasm Innovation and Resource Utilization, Joint Research Center for Food Nutrition and Health of IHM, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui, PR China; International Joint Research Laboratory of Tea Chemistry and Health Effects, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui, PR China. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 40356150 DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2025.116502
Abstract

Since type 2 diabetic patients often develop resistance to metformin as the progresses of diabetes, and almost all type 1 diabetic patients need receive Insulin injection for hyperglycemia control. It is important to explore novel strategies with different mechanisms for diabetes management. Glucose-induced osmotic diuresis, known as polyuria, is the first clinical symptom in severe type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Drinking green tea or black tea effectively mitigates diabetic symptoms including polyuria, polydipsia, polyphagia and hyperglycemia in db/db mice via regulating renal Aquaporin 2 and urine transporter A1 (UT-A1), in favor renal water reabsorption. This unique mechanism of action of tea could be useful for the treatment of diabetes in humans. In this study, we found that drinking Large-leaf yellow tea (LYT) for 5 weeks effectively ameliorated polyuria, polydipsia, polyphagia, hyperglycemia and excessive body weight gain, as well as upregulated renal water reabsorption associated proteins, including protein kinase C-alpha (PKC-α), membrane PKC-α and glycosylated UT-A1 in db/db mice. Four-days experiment were also confirmed the rapidly response of these proteins in favor renal water reabsorption and the amelioration of diabetic symptoms by LYT. We also found that green tea drinking effectively mitigated symptoms of diabetes in a mouse model for T1DM via upregulating these proteins. Moreover, green tea drinking prevented hepatorenal damage caused by hyperglycemia as suggested by the reduced levels of aspartate aminotransferase and creatinine in serum and the enhanced antioxidant defense system in liver and kidney. These results suggest the possible application of tea or tea constitutes in the clinical treatment of severe T2DM and T1DM, and the kidney is the target organ.

Keywords

Diabetes; Hepatorenal damage; Polyuria; Tea; Water reabsorption proteins.

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