TNFα plays an important role in the adipocyte dysfunction, including lipolysis acceleration,
insulin resistance and changes of
adipokines. Recently, we showed that
paeoniflorin attenuates adipocyte lipolysis and inhibits the phosphorylation of ERK, JNK, IKK stimulated by TNFα. However, the effects of
paeoniflorin on adipocytes
insulin resistance and changes of
adipokines remain unknown. The aim of the current study was to investigate the role of
paeoniflorin in preventing
insulin resistance or
inflammation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes treated with TNFα. Our results showed that
paeoniflorin restored
insulin-stimulated [(3)H]2-DOG uptake, which was reduced by TNFα, with concomitant restoration in
serine phosphorylation of IRS-1 and
insulin-stimulated phosphorylation of AKT in adipocytes.
Paeoniflorin attenuated TNFα-mediated suppression of the expressions of PPARγ and PPARγ target genes, and the improvement of
paeoniflorin on TNFα-induced
insulin resistance was attenuated by
GW9662, an antagonist of PPARγ activity. Moreover,
paeoniflorin could inhibit the expressions and secretions of
IL-6 and MCP-1 from adipocytes induced by TNFα. These results, together with our previous data, indicate that
paeoniflorin exerts a beneficial effect on adipocytes to prevent TNFα-induced
insulin resistance and inflammatory
adipokine release. Our studies provide important evidence for an ability of
paeoniflorin in amelioration of TNFα-induced adipocyte dysfunction, which would be helpful to clarify its potential role in the treatment of
obesity.