Abstract: To investigate whether Fu brick tea (FBT) water extract can attenuate metabolic disorders in Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) by regulating gut microbiota, a T2DM mouse model was established with streptozocin and 400 mg·kg^-1 FBT water extract administration. Diet, and water consumption, body weight, fasting glucose and glucose tolerance in mice were observed. Serum levels of insulin (INS), total bile acid (TBA), total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), interleukin-1beta (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) were examined. Histopathological changes of ileum and pancreas were also observed. Furthermore, fecal samples were analyzed by 16 S rRNA gene sequencing. The results show that FBT reduced the serum lipid metabolism levels, blood glucose, and inflammatory cytokines. Simultaneously, FBT treatment significantly ameliorated pathological changes in the pancreas and ileum. Moreover, the diversity, structure and composition of T2DM-disrupted gut microbiota were restored by the supplementation of FBT. T2DM-induced increase in the relative abundance of Verrucomicrobia was remarkably restored by FBT. FBT increased the growth of many key beneficial bacteria, including Firmicutes, Bifidobacterium, Enterorhabdus, Prevotella_9, A2, Acetatifactor, Eubacterium_coprostanoligenes_group, Faecalibacterium, Coriobacteriaceae and Eggerthellaceae. Collectively, the study showed that FBT might alleviate dysbacteriosis and metabolic disorders in T2DM by increasing beneficial flora.

Key words: Fu brick tea, type 2 diabetes mellitus, gut microbiota