%A GAO Yuanyuan, MAO Limin, XU Ping, WANG Yuefei %T Advances in Molecular Mechanisms of Tea Polyphenols in Preventing Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus %0 Journal Article %D 2015 %J Journal of Tea Science %R 10.13305/j.cnki.jts.2015.03.006 %P 239-247 %V 35 %N 3 %U {https://www.tea-science.com/CN/abstract/article_870.shtml} %8 2015-06-15 %X As natural functional materials, tea polyphenols have been shown to effectively prevent the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), but the mechanism of action is still unclear. For further study, this article summarizes the molecular mechanisms implicated in the beneficial metabolic effects of tea polyphenols. In the respect of glycometabolism, tea polyphenols significantly reduce the absorption of simple sugars by inhibiting disaccharidases (α-amylase and α-glucosidase). Then, tea polyphenols can ameliorate insulin resistance and inhibit gluconeogenesis via insulin signaling and AMPK pathway, including regulation of the phosphorylation and expression of protein kinases, and relevant transcription factors. In addition, tea polyphenols stimulate glucose uptake and utilization by increasing insulin secretion. Meanwhile, tea polyphenols showed great effects on improving lipid metabolic disorder by suppressing lipid synthesis and accumulating the activity of related enzyme and the expression of transcription factors as well as stimulating the oxidative metabolism of fat and lipid and suppressing the lipidosis. Moreover, tea polyphenols showed antioxidative and anti-inflammatory capability to ameliorate cell damage and apoptosis induced by oxidation and inflammation.