Malting barley carbon dots-mediated oxidative stress promotes insulin resistance in mice via NF-κB pathway and MAPK cascade

BACKGROUND: Food-borne carbon dots (CDs) are widely generated during food processing and are inevitably ingested by humans causing toxicity. However, the toxic effects of food-borne CDs on the blood glucose metabolism are unknown. RESULTS: In this study, we brewed beer via a representative strategy and extracted the melting-barley CDs (MBCDs) to explore the toxic effects on blood glucose in mice. We found the accumulation of fluorescent labeled MBCDs in various organs and oral administration of MBCDs can cause visceral toxicity, manifested as liver damage. Mice were orally administered MBCDs (5 and 25 mg/kg) for 16 weeks, and increased levels of fasting blood glucose were observed in both MBCDs-treated groups. Transcriptomic analyses revealed that MBCDs activate oxidative stress, inflammatory responses, the MAPK cascade, and PI3K/Akt signaling in mice livers. Mechanistically, MBCDs exposure-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) overproduction activates the nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) signaling pathway and MAPK cascade, thereby promoting phosphorylated insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1 at Ser307 and inducing insulin resistance (IR). Meanwhile, the IR promoted gluconeogenesis, which enhanced MBCDs-induced hyperglycemia of mice. Importantly, inhibition of the ROS significantly attenuated the MBCDs-induced inflammatory response and MAPK cascade, thereby alleviating IR and hyperglycemia in mice. CONCLUSION: In summary, this study revealed that MBCDs promote ROS overproduction and thus induced IR, resulting in imbalance of glucose homeostasis in mice. More importantly, this study was further assessed to reveal an imperative emphasis on the reevaluation of dietary and environmental CDs exposure, and has important implications for T2DM prevention research. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12951-022-01543-1.