Profile of three boron-containing compounds on the body weight, metabolism and inflammatory markers of diabetic rats

Abstract

It has been reported that boron induces changes in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, body weight and inflammatory processes. This is relevant to the biomedical field due to the requirement for developing therapeutic tools with potential application in metabolic disorders affecting humankind. However, most of the reported data from both humans and animals were obtained after boron was administered as borax or boric acid. In this work, we determined the effects of boric, cyclohexylboronic (CHB) and phenylboronic (PBA) acids (10 mg/kg of body weight/daily for two weeks) on the body weight, metabolism and inflammatory markers in the blood of control, fat-feeding and experimental diabetic rats. In particular, we observed the effects of the administration of these compounds on glycaemia and cholesterol, triglyceride, insulin, IL-6 and C-reactive protein levels, as well as visceral fat and body weight. We found different profiles for each boron-containing compound: boric acid induced decreasing body weight, insulin and IL-6 levels; CHB administration induced an increase in body weight and cholesterol but decreased IL-6 levels; and PBA administration induced a decrease in visceral fat and glucose and insulin levels. These results can improve the understanding of boron as a metabolic regulator and help develop new potential strategies to use compounds with this trace element for therapeutic purposes.