Evaluation of melatonin therapy on improving the metabolic disorders associated to obesity in rats

Abstract

Obesity is a worldwide epidemic and there are many diseases associated with it. Recent studies suggested that melatonin may be involved in the regulation of body mass and metabolic homeostasis through different mechanisms.To this purpose, we conducted an experimental study on 24 adults male Wistar rats, separated into 2 control groups and 1 test group. Our experimental protocol took place in three phases, an obesity induction phase in which the rats were subjected to a hyper fat diet “Cafeteria diet”. A therapeutic phase in which the control group received NaCl as a placebo, the test group was treated with melatonin at a dose of 5mg/kg/day. The groups were randomized and received treatment intraperitoneally for 6 weeks. A Biological blinded evaluation for lipidic, glucidic, and inflammatory (CRP) assessments were performed for each group.The results of our study showed that the Cafeteria diet significantly increased body weight with a gain of up to 126g (p=0.00). The biological analysis of the blood of rats treated with melatonin showed a decrease in blood glucose levels, triglycerides, LDL, HDL, CRP and total cholesterol compared to the initial values. Plasma analysis results obtained at the end of the therapeutic phase between melatonin and placebo‐treated rats showed a significant decrease in total cholesterol (p=0.002), LDL (p=0.005), HDL (p=0.014) and blood glucose (p=0.013). The difference between the two groups for CRP (p=0.084) and triglycerides (p=0.116) was not significant.Based on our results melatonin seems to have a beneficial effect against metabolic disorders related to obesity.Support or Funding InformationN/A