Advances in Research on the Protective Mechanisms of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in Islet β Cells

The dysfunction and decreased number of islet beta cells are central to the main pathogenesis of diabetes. Improving islet beta cell function and increasing the number of beta cells are effective approaches to treat diabetes and constitute the main direction of diabetes drug development. The role of Chinese medicine in the treatment of diabetes began to be recognized. In recent years, Chinese medicine monomers have been found to increase insulin synthesis and secretion, reduce beta cell-apoptosis, and protect the function of beta cells. The results of in vivo animal experiments and in vitro studies on insulinoma cells also suggested TCMs could promote the proliferation of pancreatic islet beta cells and induce other cells differentiation or transdifferentiation to islet beta cells. Thereby, they may play a role in the treatment of diabetes. In this paper, we will review islet beta cell protection with TCMs and the related mechanisms found in recent studies. An in-depth explanation of the role of TCM in islet beta cell protection can provide a theoretical basis and research ideas for the development of TCM-based diabetes treatment drugs.