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The microbial tryptophan metabolite indole acts on the gastrointestinal tract to improve glucose homeostasis in a mouse model of diabetes by enhancing GLP-1 secretion and L cell differentiation

GSE306720 Mus musculus (mouse) RNA-seq (gene expression) 14 samples Submitted 2025/12/31 Platform GPL24247
At a glance

RNA-seq (gene expression) · mouse · 14 samples

What it is
RNA-seq (gene expression)Gene activity measured by sequencing. The summary does not mention single-cell work, so this is most likely bulk: one average per sample, the usual starting point for comparing groups.
Organism
Mus musculus (mouse)
Samples
14 samples: 7 × Mouse liver treated with water sample G vs 7 × Mouse liver treated with indole sample GGroups are read from the sample names, not from the paper. Check the list below.
Data you can get
A processed table (series matrix) and supplementary files from NCBI; the raw sequencing reads from ENA. Which of these hold counts depends on the study, so check the file list.
Paper
The microbial tryptophan metabolite indole acts on the gastrointestinal tract to improve glucose homeostasis in a mouse model of diabetes by enhancing GLP-1 secretion and L cell differentiationDiabetologia · 2026
Summary (written by the submitters)
Aims/hypothesis: Growing evidence implicates gut microbiota-derived metabolites in metabolic homeostasis. Indole, a microbial tryptophan metabolite, has been reported to enhance Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) secretion in vitro, and its derivatives have been inversely associated with risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). We hypothesised that indole acts via the gastrointestinal tract to modulate glucose homeostasis, and aimed to test this hypothesis using in vitro and in vivo models.
Read the full summary ↓
Methods: The acute effects of indole on GLP-1 secretion in vitro, and on glucose tolerance and hormone secretion in mice, were determined. Subsequently, the effects of indole on intestinal epithelial cell fate and L-cell differentiation in murine ileal organoids and in vivo were studied. Finally, the utility of chronic indole administration in a murine model of T2D was explored. Results: Indole stimulated in vitro GLP-1 secretion in a concentration-dependent manner, and improved acute glucose control in vivo. Additionally, we demonstrate that indole drives enteroendocrine L-cell differentiation in murine ileal organoids, resulting in increased L-cell density and longer-term glucoregulatory benefits in vivo. Finally, sub-chronic indole administration improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in diabetic mice. Conclusions/interpretation: Our findings identify indole as an anti-diabetic molecule that acts on the gut, and raise the possibility of incorporating indole into nutraceutical supplements to aid in the treatment or prevention of T2D. This highlights the importance of gut microbiota-derived metabolites in metabolic health and opens new avenues for developing novel strategies to combat T2D.
Published in
The microbial tryptophan metabolite indole acts on the gastrointestinal tract to improve glucose homeostasis in a mouse model of diabetes by enhancing GLP-1 secretion and L cell differentiation
Phuah P, Norton M, Cheng S et al. · Diabetologia 2026 · PMID 41776124 · doi:10.1007/s00125-026-06688-4
This dataset
Download · which file do I need?

Direct links to NCBI and ENA, no account and no request form. Pick by what you want to do: take the small processed table to look, the supplementary files to re-analyse, or the original raw data to start over.

1 · Just have a look

Processed table

The series matrix: one table of values per sample as the submitters processed it. The smallest download, and it opens in Excel or R. Start here to see what the data look like.

2 · Re-analyse it

Supplementary files

The count tables and other files the authors uploaded. Take only the samples you need, or the whole study as GSE306720_RAW.tar (it can run to tens of gigabytes).

3 · Start from the raw reads

Raw sequencing reads

The original FASTQ files, straight from the sequencer, held at ENA. Large, and you align them yourself, so only choose this if you need to re-process the study from scratch.

What the files usually look like: For RNA-seq the counts are usually a table among the supplementary files (look for 'counts', 'expression', 'FPKM' or 'TPM' in the file name). The series matrix of a sequencing study is sometimes nearly empty.

Also filed as BioProject PRJNA1311968 and SRA study SRP614070. Searching any of these in the dataset finder brings you back here.

Study design
7 × Mouse liver treated with water sample G vs 7 × Mouse liver treated with indole sample G

Supports a between-group comparison across 14 samples.

How we read this: 2 replicated groups read from 14 sample titles; they account for 14 of them. These groups are guessed from the sample names, not taken from the paper, so check them against the sample list below before relying on them.

Samples in this study
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