Dietary and Physical activity
Dietary records were analyzed for total dietary energy, fat, protein, carbohydrate, and micronutrient intake among the participants with type 2 diabetes mellitus before and after the intervention. The obtained data showed that mentioned dietary parameters did not significantly change during the intervention. Moreover, the best sources of natural AST are algae, yeast, wild sockeye salmon, trout, krill, and shrimp and these were not included in the daily diet of our participants. Thus, food sources of AST were limited, and intake of other carotenoids did not differ between the groups during the study 17. In addition, no significant changes were detected in the participants’ physical activity through the intervention (P = 0.062).

Circulating miR‐146a, miR-126, MDA and IL-6

Mean plasma levels of MDA and IL-6, before and after intervention is shown in Table 2. There were significant decreases (paired t -test) in MDA and IL-6 levels in AST group compared with the placebo group (P  < 0.05). Although the comparison within the groups indicated that AST could decrease MDA level and IL-6 values over time (P  < 0.05).
On the other hand, following the 8-week administration of AST, we observed that the expression level of miR-146-a significantly decreased in comparison to the placebo group (Fold change: -1/388) (P-value <0.05). Meanwhile the increased level of the miR-126 was detected but was not statistically significant. The expression changes of miR-126 and miR-146 in the AST group before and after intervention was shown in Table3.
However, regarding placebo group, the mean expression of miR-126 was significantly decreased (Target gene up-regulated by factor: -1.233). But, circulating miR-146-a was increased in comparison to the expression of the reference gene (Target gene up-regulated by factor: 1.185). The expression changes of miR-126 and miR-146 in the placebo group before and after intervention was shown in Table3.