Improved effect of palatinose syrup bioconverted from sucrose on hyperglycemia and regulation of hepatic lipogenesis in male C57BL/6J mice

In this study, we prepared palatinose–sucrose (PS) mixtures from sucrose by enzymatic bioconversion to improve the low sweetness of palatinose and to develop sweeteners that can lower blood sugar levels. We hypothesized that PS mixtures containing 30% or 50% palatinose might demonstrate improvement of hyperglycemia. The physiological changes in C57BL/6J mice fed with these concentrations of PS mixture were recorded. After feeding the mice the different diets for 5 weeks, the diet with a higher palatinose content was observed to have resulted in lower serum glucose levels. The expression levels of various genes and proteins related to hepatic lipogenesis and cholesterol homeostasis were measured. The diet containing the 50% PS mixture induced lower expression of HMGCR, CYP7A1, and PPARγ as compared to the diet containing the 30% PS mixture. In conclusion, the ingestion of palatinose resulted in lower lipid levels compared to that of sucrose; therefore, palatinose would be a good alternative to sucrose as a healthy sweetener. Practical applications: Palatinose (isomaltulose), along with tagatose, allulose, and allose, is a well-known sugar substitute. Many studies have reported that palatinose has various beneficial effects on postprandial glucose metabolism, such as glycemic index, fat accumulation, hyperglycemia, and hyperinsulinemia. Although there are many advantages, including desirable biological functions, palatinose has limitations as a complete alternative for sucrose because of higher production costs, lower solubility, and lower sweetness. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the possibility of developing a sucrose substitute by preparing PS mixtures bioconverted using α-glucosyltransferase from sucrose and to promote the industrial application of palatinose. Our results suggest that 50% palatinose syrup may be a new candidate as a sugar substitute for industrial application.