Abstract
Curcumin is an antioxidant agent that improves glycemia in animal models of diabetes. Clinically curcumin use is limited due to poor solubility, weak absorption, and low bioavailability; therefore, this study to investigate the effects of curcumin's analog, difluorinated curcumin (CDF), on fasting blood glucose (FBG), oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), and insulin tolerance test (ITT), in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats was undertaken. STZ-induced diabetes rats were randomly assigned to six groups (7 rats per group). They were treated daily by oral gavage with curcumin (200 and 100mg/kg/day), CDF (200 and 100mg/kg/day), and metformin (200mg/kg/day) as a positive control group, for 4weeks. Two diabetic control (DC) and normal control (NC) groups (non-diabetic rats) received normal saline and citrate buffer, respectively. FBG was measured at the beginning and end of the treatment (Day 0 and week 4) and OGTT and ITT were performed to determine glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. Cur100, CDF 100, and CDF200 significantly decreased FBG levels after 4weeks oral administration by -34% (-150mg/dL±70, p=0.02), -36% (123mg/dL ±67, p<0.04), and -40% (-189mg/dL±91, p=0.03), respectively. Glucose sensitivity by OGTT showed a significant improvement in glucose tolerance ability in all treated groups compared with DC group. ITT demonstrated that insulin response improved significantly in Cur100 and CDF 200 groups. Overall, CDF improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, while reducing FBG compared to curcumin, suggesting that curcumin analogs may have therapeutic utility in diabetes.
Published Version
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