The Effect of Oral Administration of Hypericum Perforatum on Serum Glucose and Lipids, Hepatic Enzymes and Lipid Peroxidation in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats

Mohammadhassan Ghosian Moghadam,Ali Ghanem,Iman Ansari,Mehrdad Roghani,Neda Mehdizade

doi:10.31661/gmj.v6i4.889

Abstract

Background: In this research, the beneficial effects of oral administration of Hypericum perfoÂratum (HP) on serum glucose and lipids, hepatic enzymes and the amount of malondialdehyde in Streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats are studied. Materials and Methods: In this experiÂmental study, 32 male rats where randomly divided into 4 groups of control, treatment-control, diabetic and treatment-diabetic. HP was orally administered to treatment groups over a period of 6 weeks. Serum glucose levels, triglyceride, total cholesterol along with HDL and LDL were all evaluated prior to initiation of the treatment, and at 3rd and 6th (last) week of treatment initiation, and in the end of the treatment, malondialdehyde and aminotransferase enzymes of the liver were evaluated. Results: regarding serum glucose levels and body weight measured in the 3rd and 6th week, the treatment-diabetic group didnâ€™t show a significant change compared to the diabetic group, regarding serum total cholesterol and LDL levels, a significant decrease was observed and regarding serum HDL, a significant increase was documented. Furthermore, treating the treatment-diabetic group with HP did not result in any significant decrease in serum triglyceride, malondialdehyde or alanine aminotransferase but, in fact, did cause a significant decrease in aspartate aminotransferase. Conclusions: Oral administration of HP did in fact have a beneficial effect on lowering serum levels of total cholesterol, LDL and the hepatic enzyme asÂpartate aminotransferase and on raising the levels of HDL in diabetized rats with Streptozotocin. [GMJ.2017;6(4):319-29] DOI: 10.22086/gmj.v6i4.889

Highlights

Diabetes entangles multiple organs and cause an array of problems for each; among the most important long term complications which are caused by diabetes are retinopathy with impaired vision, nephropathy with renal insufficiency and failure, peripheral neuropathy and diabetic foot which leads to amputation, autonomic neuropathy and sexual dysfunctions, genitourinary complications, gastrointestinal problems, atherosclerosis and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular and peripheral arteriovenous structural damage [1]
A main cause in the development of atherosclerosis is the dyslipidemic condition in which diabetes patients are; raised triglyceride levels and lowered HDL levels are to be pointed out, and considering the liver’s role in the metabolism of lipoproteins, tissue damage endured by the liver will exacerbate said conditions
The results of this study show that treating the diabetic test subjects would not lower levels of serum glucose or a significant improvement in their body weights, but in regard to total cholesterol and LDL levels, the decrease is significant along with a significant rise in HDL levels, which would in turn mean beneficial to the test subjects’ overall health

Summary

Introduction

Diabetes entangles multiple organs and cause an array of problems for each; among the most important long term complications which are caused by diabetes are retinopathy with impaired vision, nephropathy with renal insufficiency and failure, peripheral neuropathy and diabetic foot which leads to amputation, autonomic neuropathy and sexual dysfunctions, genitourinary complications, gastrointestinal problems, atherosclerosis and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular and peripheral arteriovenous structural damage [1]. The beneficial effects of oral administration of Hypericum perforatum (HP) on serum glucose and lipids, hepatic enzymes and the amount of malondialdehyde in Streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats are studied. Results: regarding serum glucose levels and body weight measured in the 3rd and 6th week, the treatment-diabetic group didn’t show a significant change compared to the diabetic group, regarding serum total cholesterol and LDL levels, a significant decrease was observed and regarding serum HDL, a significant increase was documented. Conclusions: Oral administration of HP did have a beneficial effect on lowering serum levels of total cholesterol, LDL and the hepatic enzyme aspartate aminotransferase and on raising the levels of HDL in diabetized rats with Streptozotocin.

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