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Diabetes, characterized as a well-known chronic metabolic syndrome, with its associated complications pose a substantial and escalating health and healthcare challenge on a global scale. Current strategies addressing diabetes are mainly symptomatic and there are fewer available curative pharmaceuticals for diabetic complications. Thus, there is an urgent need to identify novel pharmacological targets and agents. The impaired mitochondria have been associated with the etiology of diabetes and its complications, and the intervention of mitochondrial dysfunction represents an attractive breakthrough point for the treatments of diabetes and its complications. Natural products (NPs), with multicenter characteristics, multi-pharmacological activities and lower toxicity, have been caught attentions as the modulators of mitochondrial functions in the therapeutical filed of diabetes and its complications. This review mainly summarizes the recent progresses on the potential of 39 NPs and 2 plant-extracted mixtures to improve mitochondrial dysfunction against diabetes and its complications. It is expected that this work may be useful to accelerate the development of innovative drugs originated from NPs and improve upcoming therapeutics in diabetes and its complications.

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Aims The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) plays a pivotal role in regulating the innate and the acquired immune systems. The present study aimed to investigate the association of Crohn's disease (CD) with AhR polymorphisms in a cohort of patients from Southeast China. Methods An improved multiple ligase detection reaction technique was applied to examine the polymorphisms of rs2158041, rs2066853, and rs10249788 in 310 patients with CD and 573 controls. Results Compared to the controls, the variant allele (T) and genotype (CT+TT) of rs2158041 were less frequent in patients with CD (both p < 0.05). Similar conclusions were drawn from patients with ileal CD and with stricture CD as compared to the controls (all p < 0.0083). However, no significant differences were observed in allele and genotype frequencies of rs2066853 and rs10249788 between patients with CD and the controls (all p > 0.05). Although rs2158041 and rs10249788 were in complete linkage disequilibrium with rs2066853, respectively, only the frequency of haplotype (TG) formed by rs2158041 and rs2066853 was significantly lower in patients with CD than that in the controls (p < 0.05). Conclusions AhR (rs2158041) might be a susceptible locus for CD, especially for the two subtypes: ileal CD and stricture CD.

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Abnormalities of forkhead box P3 (FOXP3) are implicated in various autoimmune diseases. This study is aimed at investigating the association of ulcerative colitis (UC) with FOXP3 polymorphisms and its colonic expression in Chinese patients. Polymorphisms of rs3761548, rs2232365, rs2294021, and rs3761547 were examined in 472 UC patients and 525 healthy controls using the SNaPshot method. The colonic expression of FOXP3 mRNA and protein was assayed in inflammatory mucosa of 34 UC patients and normal mucosa of 36 patients with benign sigmoid polyps (normal controls) using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemical analysis. All data were handled separately for females and males. As a result, the carrier frequencies with at least one variant allele of rs3761548, rs2232365, and rs229402 increased in female and male UC patients compared with healthy controls. Significant differences in these carrier frequencies were also observed between patients with mild and moderate UC and patients with severe UC. The expression of FOXP3 was higher in UC patients (both males and females), especially those with severe UC, than in normal controls. The expression of FOXP3 was downregulated in UC patients having at least one variant allele compared with UC patients having no variant allele of rs3761548, rs2232365, and rs2294021. Male gender (ß = -0.341), rs2294021 variation (ß = -0.503), and severe UC (ß = 0.361) were independently related to the mRNA expression of FOXP3 in UC patients. Together, our findings indicated that FOXP3 (rs3761548, rs2232365, and rs2294021) variations increased the risk of UC and were associated with the lower colonic expression of FOXP3 in UC patients.

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BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The Fc gamma receptor IIa (FcγRIIa), encoded by FCGR2A gene, has been suggested to play a crucial role in immunity by linking immunoglobulin G antibody-mediated responses with cellular effector and regulatory functions. Polymorphisms in FCGR2A have been shown to affect FcγRIIa/antibody interactions and have been potentially implicated in several autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. This study was designed to analyze the association between ulcerative colitis (UC) and FCGR2A polymorphisms in the Chinese population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 422 patients with UC and 710 unaffected controls were recruited. Five single nucleotide polymorphisms of FCGR2A (rs1801274, rs10800309, rs4657039, rs511278, and rs6696854) were genotyped by SNaPshot. Analyses for linkage disequilibrium (LD) and haplotype studies of FCGR2A were performed for all study subjects. RESULTS: The frequency of the minor homozygote (CC) of the rs1801274 SNP of FCGR2A was shown to be significantly lower in patients with UC than in controls (7.1% vs. 12.1%, p = 0.008). Two haplotype blocks, formed by FCGR2A (rs4657039, rs6696854, and rs10800309) and FCGR2A (rs1801274 and rs511278), respectively, were observed in the subsequent LD analysis. The TC haplotype constructed by the major allele of FCGR2A (rs1801274 and rs511278) was more prevalent in UC patients compared with controls (65.2% vs. 60.2%, p = 0.017). CONCLUSIONS: The minor homozygote (CC) of FCGR2A (rs1801274) may contribute to decrease the susceptibility to UC and the TC haplotype formed by FCGR2A (rs1801274 and rs511278) may increase the risk of UC in the Chinese population.

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