Compared to liver, bile duct and skeletal muscle, garlic stimulates only pancreatic insulinogenesis in early streptozotocin‐induced diabetic rats

Abstract

BackgroundStreptozotocin (STZ) induces diabetes mellitus (DM: STZ‐DM) type‐1 in rats by pancreatic β‐cells DNA alkylation and consequently reduction in insulin circulating concentration. Garlic aqueous extract (GE) increases insulin circulating concentration in the STZ‐DM rat model.ObjectiveThis study investigated the insulinogenic mechanisms of GE in the pancreas, liver, bile duct and gastrocnemius skeletal muscle (GSM) of STZ‐DM rats.MethodThe body weight, food and water intake, urine output, fasting blood glucose (FBG), serum insulin (SI) in addition to insulin m‐RNA expression, immunohistochemical localization (IHC) and concentration were investigated before (basal level = BL) and after 1, 4 and 8 weeks of oral treatment in normal rats treated with normal saline (NR‐NS), diabetic rats treated with normal saline (DR‐NS) and diabetic rats treated with GE (DR‐GE).ResultsCompared to NRNS, DR‐NS showed significant typical diabetic behaviors and biophysical symptoms including progressive increases in FBG and reductions in SI, in addition to reductions in pancreatic insulin m‐RNA expression, IHC and concentration. Conversely, and in comparison to DR‐NS, DR‐GE showed significant amelioration of diabetic behaviors and biophysical symptoms, including progressive decreases in FBG and increases in SI, in addition to timely‐progressive increases in pancreatic insulin m‐RNA expression, IHC labeling and concentration. The remaining investigated tissues did not show any advent changes in insulin m‐RNA and IHC in response to GE treatment.ConclusionGarlic's short‐term treatment induced hyperinsulinemia observed in the early STZ‐DM type‐1 rat model may result from augmented pancreatic insulinogenesis.Support or Funding InformationResearch Sector ‐ Kuwait University (SL04/14)This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.