Facilitating effects of berberine on rat pancreatic islets through modulating hepatic nuclear factor 4 alpha expression and glucokinase activity

Figure 2 Pharmacological effects of berberine and GB on pancreatic islets. A: Effects of berberine and GB on basal (2.8 mmol/L Glucose) and GSIS (16.7 mmol/L Glucose) by pancreatic islets. Control and GB represent islets of untreated and 1 μmol/L GB treated groups, while 1, 3, 10 and 30 represent berberine groups of indicated concentrations. ^bP < 0.01 vs control at 2.8 mmol/L glucose; ^cP < 0.05, ^dP < 0.01 vs control at 16.7 mmol/L glucose; B: Cytotoxicity of berberine and GB on islet cells assessed by MTT assay. Results were expressed as the percentage of absorbance to the control value. Data are presented as mean ± SD (n = 6). ^eP< 0.01 vs control. C: Effects of berberine and GB on islet GK activity. ^fP < 0.05, ^gP < 0.01 vs control.