Abstract
BackgroundThis study is intended to clarify the influence of exogenous bovine lactoferrin (bLf) treatment on glycemic homeostasis, gene expression, and production of lactoferrin (Lf) in rats with experimentally induced diabetes.MethodologyFifty adult male rats were used; 15 rats were used as the normal control rats (group A) and were injected an intraperitoneal (I/P) with 1 ml of isotonic saline daily for 3 months. Thirty-five rats were administered I/P injection of 60 mg of streptozotocin per kilogram body weight to induce diabetes. Thirty streptozotocin-treated rats were selected and used as diabetic rats, and they were subdivided into 2 equal groups (15 rats each): the untreated diabetic group (group B) and treated diabetic group (group C). The rats in the diabetic group were administered an I/P injection of 1 ml of isotonic saline daily for 3 months, while rats in the diabetic treatment group were administered an I/P injection of 300 mg of bLf/kg body weight/day/3 months. At the end of the experiment, blood and renal tissue samples were collected from all rats. The levels of insulin, glucose, and lactoferrin in plasma were measured. Homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was performed. The numbers of Lf-mRNA copies in renal tissue were assessed using quantitative RT-PCR. To measure Lf production in renal tissue, Western blot analysis was applied.ResultsThe obtained data demonstrated that the treatment of diabetic rats with bLf maintained glycemic homeostasis at normal levels but increased the mRNA expression of renal Lf.ConclusionIn diabetic rats, bovine lactoferrin treatment offers the potential for protection against incidences of insulin resistance (IR) by stimulating the suppressed expression and production of the LTF gene.
Highlights
This study is intended to clarify the influence of exogenous bovine lactoferrin treatment on glycemic homeostasis, gene expression, and production of lactoferrin (Lf) in rats with experimentally induced diabetes
In diabetic rats, bovine lactoferrin treatment offers the potential for protection against incidences of insulin resistance (IR) by stimulating the suppressed expression and production of the LTF gene
The analysis of the data showed that there is a significant decrease in plasma glucose levels (p ≤ 0.05) in treated diabetic rats compared to untreated diabetic rats; the plasma glucose level of treated diabetic rats was significantly greater than that of the control rats
Summary
This study is intended to clarify the influence of exogenous bovine lactoferrin (bLf) treatment on glycemic homeostasis, gene expression, and production of lactoferrin (Lf) in rats with experimentally induced diabetes. Lactoferrin (Lf) is a conjugated nonbinding protein in the transferrin family with pleiotropic biological and medical actions, including antineoplastic, immunomodulatory, and antimicrobial properties. On the basis of its expression pattern and its biological properties, lactoferrin is one of the components of the innate immune system and works in the first line of immune defense (Brock, 1995). The role of Lf in combating diabetes has been demonstrated empirically through the clinical outcomes of improved glycolytic equilibrium and dyslipidemia profiles, and anti-inflammatory effects. A number of experimental and clinical studies have reported these results for Lf (Agrawal, Tantia, Jain, Agrawal, & Agrawal, 2013). Hypolipidemic, hypoglycemic, and other anti-inflammatory outcomes undergo modulation through the TLR-4/NFκB/SIRT-1 axis, a key signaling pathway that is well known to be an activator of inflammation transcription regulators (Fuentes-Antrás, Ioan, Tueen, Egido, & Lorenzo, 2014)
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