Abstract
Background: Glyphosate is a broad spectrum herbicide and desiccant. Diabetes is a group of metabolic diseases resulting due to deficiency in insulin secretion. Chronic hyperglycemia will lead to long term damage and failure of different organs like eyes, kidneys, nerves etc. Liver is the major site for gluconeogenesis and a lot of glycolytic enzymes will be involved. Expression of Glycogen synthase and glycogen phosphorylase, the glycolytic enzymes are studied in this research.
 Aim: To determine whether glyphosate exposure is detrimental to the glycogen metabolic enzymes (Glycogen synthase and phosphorylase) in the liver of adult male rats.
 Materials and Methods: The following study was done on albino rats of wistar strain, and was approved by the institutional animal ethics committee. They were fed with a rat pellet diet. In our study the rats were divided into 4 groups with 6 rats in each and were subjected to glyphosate orally with different dosage in each group and mRNA expression analysis of glycogen related enzymes was done after a span of 16 weeks. The data were analyzed statistically by a one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Duncan’s multiple range test was used to see the statistical significance among the group. The results with p<0.05 level were considered to be statistically significant.
 Results: The present result showed that the mRNA expression of glycogen synthase significantly reduced (P<0.05) and mRNA expression of glycogen phosphorylase activity increased significantly with an increased dose of glyphosate (P<0.05) to that of control.
 Conclusion: Exposure to glyphosate causes detrimental changes in the glycolytic enzymes glycogen synthase and glycogen phosphorylase leading to diabetes.
Highlights
Glyphosate, known as N-phosphonomethyl glycine is one of the most widely used herbicides worldwide, but was banned in several countries due to its non-target impacts on longterm usage [1]
At the dose of 100 g and 250 g, the glyphosate concentration was similar to each other and is significantly reduced in comparison to control, since there is a decrease in glycogen synthase, it is evident that glycogen has not formed and remains as an indicator of diabetes (Fig. 1)
In this study it was observed that the enzyme activity for glycogen phosphorylase increased in a dose dependent manner from 50 g,100 g,250 g, as the function of phosphorylase is to break glycogen it may lead to diabetes due to dysfunction in insulin secretion (Fig. 2)
Summary
Glyphosate, known as N-phosphonomethyl glycine is one of the most widely used herbicides worldwide, but was banned in several countries due to its non-target impacts on longterm usage [1] This herbicide was commonly used for crops such as soybean, wheat, corn etc. In 2015 the IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France), stated its organization as the specialized cancer agency of the World Health Organization (WHO, Geneva, Switzerland), stated glyphosate as a carcinogenic substance and maybe harmful to human beings [2] This led to a drastic downfall of the company “Roundup” which had high contents of glyphosate in its products and were banned in several countries like Thailand, Sri Lanka and states in India like Andhra Pradesh. The results with p
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
