Purpose: To examine the gene expression profile, as well as blood sugar-lowering and lipid-lowering molecular mechanisms of Dendrobium mixtures in a diabetic rat model .

Methods: Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were fed high-fat/high-glucose for 16 months. Those with random blood glucose > 16.7 mmol/L were used as the model group and treated with Dendrobium mixture (DEN, containing Dendrobium, Astragalus, Schisandra, etc) in clinically equivalent dose (12 g/kg). The liver RNA of the rats in all three groups (control, model and DEN) was used for Agilent genome expression microarray testing and subsequent data analysis.

Result: Between the diabetic rat group and the wild-type group, 1339 functional genes showed differences in expression levels (p < 0.05). After Dendrobium treatment, only 380 genes showed differences in expression (p < 0.05). The expression level of nearly 1000 genes returned to normal after drug treatment (compared with the wild-type group, p > 0.05). Genes whose expression normalized were mainly those affected by the disease state and associated with glucose and lipid metabolism, cell growth, apoptosis, biosynthesis, olfactory receptors, or cytoskeletal proteins.

Conclusion: Progressive therapy with Dendrobium mixture, which has glucose- and lipid-lowering effects, is associated with multi-gene expression pathways. By treating diabetic r and wild-type rats with the mixture, the disorder is further understood at the transcriptomic level.