Abstract
An in vivo investigation on the gross and cellular changes of the pancreas of Swiss albino mice treated with Ficus racemosa extract was carried out at the Bioresearch Laboratory, Department of Anatomy and Histology, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh. Twenty (20) Swiss albino mice (Mus musculus, age: 4-5 weeks, weight 25-28g, purchased from ICDDR,B) were used for this experiment and were grouped (each group has 5 mice) as the control group (C), diabetic control group (DC), glibenclamide treated group (GL) and Ficus racemosa extract treated group (FR) and provided with feed (standard mice pellets purchased from ICDDR,B) and water ad libitum. Diabetes mellitus was induced by single intra-peritoneal injection of freshly prepared solution of alloxan monohydrate (150mg/kg body weight) dissolved in physiological saline in overnight fasted mice. The ethanolic extracts of Ficus racemosa fruit (250mg/kg body weight) was administered orally once daily for 30 days in comparison to a standard antidiabetic drug, glibenclamide (600μg/kg body weight). The uniformity of all the management practices was also maintained. The total experimental tenure was 30 days. At the end of the experiment, mice were ethically sacrificed and necessary samples were collected from the pancreas and were preserved, processed for slide preparation and stained (H & E stain) for histomorphological investigation. Pancreas of the normal control group showed no morphological changes, whereas, both the colour and shape were significantly changed in the diabetic control group. The alteration was effectively restored in the standard anti-diabetic drug (glibenclamide) treated group as well as the Ficus racemosa extract treated group. Histologically, necrosis in the islets and focal acinar damages, found in the diabetic pancreas were restored to normal in the Ficus racemosa extract treated groups, and were significantly related to that of the effect produced by standard antidiabetic drug, glibenclamide. Therefore, it is assumed that the Ficus racemosa extract might be used as an anti-diabetic drug or as an adjuvant in the diabetic therapy. Results might aid to explore a frontier, inexpensive, safe and effective anti-diabetic drug in future.
Highlights
Diabetes mellitus is a major metabolic disorder characterized by chronic hyperglycemia as a result of a relative or absolute lack of insulin or the actions of insulin (Mastan et al, 2009)
Pancreas of the normal control group showed no morphological changes, whereas, pale coloured and degenerated pancreases were observed in the diabetic group
The alterations were effectively restored in the Ficus racemosa herbal extract and the standard antidiabetic drug treated group
Summary
Diabetes mellitus is a major metabolic disorder characterized by chronic hyperglycemia as a result of a relative or absolute lack of insulin or the actions of insulin (Mastan et al, 2009). Insulin deficiency leads to metabolic aberrations in the animals namely increase blood glucose or hyperglycemia (Chude et al, 2001). An estimated 387 million people have diabetes in 2014, with type 2 diabetes making up about 90% of the cases (Shi and Hu, 2014). This is equal to 8.3% of the adults’ population, with equal rates in both men and women (Vos et al, 2012). Worldwide in the years 2012 to 2014, diabetes is estimated to have resulted in 1.5 to 4.9 million deaths per year, making it the 8th leading cause of death (IDF, 2014)
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