Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic metabolic disease that has turned out to be a pandemic all over the world. In China, some traditional Chinese herbal formulas have enjoyed a high reputation in T2DM treatment for centuries.

Methods: In this study, ShenQi compound (SQC) is proposed, a formula that has been performed on T2DM clinical therapeutics in China for many years. The efficacy of SQC in a diabetic rat model by measuring food and water intake and examining islet microcirculatory index involves islets microvessel quantity and density, islets size, pancreatic microvascular wall thickness is evaluated. Meanwhile, gene microarray experiments were performed to explore the molecular mechanism of SQC treatment. In addition, a western medicine, metformin, was employed as a comparison.

Results: The results indicated that SQC could effectively improve polydipsia, polyphagia and weight loss caused by diabetes as well as pancreatic tissue damage and vascular injury for T2DM. Meanwhile, the gene microarray experiments indicated that SQC may improve the T2DM by affecting the biological functions related to detection of chemical stimulus involved in sensory perception of smell, G-protein coupled receptor signaling pathway, cytoplasmic translation. In addition, SQC presented curative effect by the regulated function associated with translation, while metformin presented curative effect by the regulated function associated coagulation.

Conclusion: SQC is an effective therapeutic drug on T2DM, and presents curative effect by regulated function associated with translation.