An extract from wax apple (Syzygium samarangense (Blume) Merrill and Perry) effects glycogenesis and glycolysis pathways in tumor necrosis factor-α-treated FL83B mouse hepatocytes.

FL83B mouse hepatocytes were treated with tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) to induce insulin resistance to investigate the effect of a wax apple aqueous extract (WAE) in insulin-resistant mouse hepatocytes. The uptake of 2-[N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1, 3-diazol-4-yl)amino]-2-deoxyglucose (2 NBDG), a fluorescent D-glucose derivative, was performed, and the metabolism of carbohydrates was evaluated by examining the expression of glycogenesis or glycolysis-related proteins in insulin-resistant hepatocytes. The results show that WAE significantly improves the uptake of glucose and enhances glycogen content in insulin-resistant FL83B mouse hepatocytes. The results from Western blot analysis also reveal that WAE increases the expression of glycogen synthase (GS), hexokinase (HXK), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), phosphofructokinase (PFK) and aldolase in TNF-α treated cells, indicating that WAE may ameliorate glucose metabolism by promoting glycogen synthesis and the glycolysis pathways in insulin-resistant FL83B mouse hepatocytes.