Antioxidant Effect Of Aucubin On Rats With Diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is chronic metabolic disease with glucose metabolism abnormal. Morbidity of DM is increasing in many countries. The management of DM is considered a global problem and a cure has yet to be discovered. Oxidative stress has been suggested as a contributory factor in development and complication of diabetes, antioxidants were important preventive agent against diabetes mellitus. Aucubin was an iridoid glycoside, which has the antioxidative activity. The aim of the present study was to determine the protective effect of aucubin on blood glucose, lipid peroxidation and activities of antioxidant defense systems and to conduct an immunohistochemical evaluation of pancreas-β-cells in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.Diabetic rats was induced following overnight fasting by an intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin in a single dose. The change of behavior was investigated as part of the pathology of diabetes. The level of blood glucose was detemined before and after the intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin and administration of aucubin. The lipid peroxidation was determined by assessing the concentration of malondialdehyde (MDA) and activities of antioxidant enzymes - catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in liver, kidneys, pancreas homogenate and mitochondria of rats were also determined. Changes of pancreas-β-cell and insulin immunoreactivity in the pancreatic islets were determined by immunohistochemical evaluation and pathology image analyzing system to study the protection of aucubin on pancreas.In our study, rats with diabates were successfully induced by an intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin. After the inducement of diabetes, the diabetic rats behaved worse and worse, their blood glucose increased significantly. Diabetic rats also exhibited an increase in the level of lipid peroxidation and decrease in activities of antioxidant enzymes in liver, kidneys, pancreas homogenate and mitochondria as compared to control rats. Administration of aucubin to diabetic rats significantly reversed damage associated with diabetes, aucubin treatment improved behavior and lowered the blood glucose evidently. The level of lipid peroxidation was significantly decreased and the activities of antioxidant enzymes were significantly increased. In addition, diabetic rats showed an obvious decrease in the number ofβcells and insulin immunoreactivity in pancreas, but the pancreas of aucubin-treated rats were improved and the number of immunoreactiveβcells were significantly increased. In conclusion, the present investigation shows that aucubin possesses several healthful properties including improvement of behavior, lowering of hyperglycemia, antioxidant effects and pancreaticβ-cell-protection that taken together contribute to its protective effect in streptozotocin-diabetic animals. Thus, aucubin may be implicated as a preventive agent against diabetes mellitus.