Abstract
Background: The currently therapy of type 2 diabetes is unsatisfactory. Nowadays, there is a great interest in using the medicinal plants for treatment of diabetes. Therefore, we studied the efficacy of stevia extract alone and in combination with commonly used sulfonylureas ”glimepiride” in a trial to introduce a new effective therapeutic regimen for type 2 diabetes mellitus. Methods: Nicotinamide (230 mg/kg, IP) followed by streptozotocin (65 mg/kg, IP) were injected for induction of type 2 diabetes in male rats. The diabetic groups were treated for 21 days as the following, the first with stevia extract (300 mg/kg), the second with glimepiride (1 mg/kg), and the third with a combination of glimepiride and stevia extract. Many parameters were measured to evaluate the alleviation of the toxic effect of streptozotocin by stevia and/or glimepiride. Immunohistochemical expression of endothelial nitric oxide (eNOS) was assessed in renal tissues. Results: The stevia extract reduced the blood glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, ALT, AST, urea, creatinine, tumour necrosis factor (TNFα) levels and malondialdehyde concentration compared to control diabetic group. Stevia treatment improved insulin and adiponectin levels. Stevia reduced eNOS expression in renal tissues compared to the diabetic rats. All these changes were more significant with combined treatment. Conclusion: Stevia and glimepiride may be a new putative therapeutic regimen for management of type 2 diabetes and its complications.
Highlights
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a global problem, characterized by high levels of glucose in the blood
Stevia extract at a dose of (300 mg/kg) produced a significant change in BGL in the form of decreasing the mean blood glucose levels upon daily administration for diabetic rats compared to control rats as represented in (Table 1)
Our finding demonstrated a significant reduction in blood glucose level in glimepiride treated rats
Summary
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a global problem, characterized by high levels of glucose in the blood. The currently therapy of type 2 diabetes is unsatisfactory. We studied the efficacy of stevia extract alone and in combination with commonly used sulfonylureas ”glimepiride” in a trial to introduce a new effective therapeutic regimen for type 2 diabetes mellitus. Results: The stevia extract reduced the blood glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, ALT, AST, urea, creatinine, tumour necrosis factor (TNFα) levels and malondialdehyde concentration compared to control diabetic group. Stevia reduced eNOS expression in renal tissues compared to the diabetic rats. All these changes were more significant with combined treatment. Conclusion: Stevia and glimepiride may be a new putative therapeutic regimen for management of type 2 diabetes and its complications
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