Hypoglycemic and pancreatic protective effects of Portulaca oleracea extract in alloxan induced diabetic rats

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Research Article

Amina M. Tolba¹  Mona F. Schaalan²  Basma K. Ramadan³ 

[1] Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine for Girls (Cairo), Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt;Department of Biochemistry Faculty of Pharmacy, Misr International University, Km 28, Cairo-Ismailia road, Cairo PO Box 1, Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt;Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine for Girls (Cairo), Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt;

关键词: Diabetes;    IL-6;    Portulaca oleracea;    TNF-α;    B-cell mass;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12906-016-1530-1

 received in 2016-09-28, accepted in 2016-12-11,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundDiabetes is a major public health concern. In spite of continuous new drug development to treat diabetes, herbal remedies remain a potential adjunct therapy to maintain better glycemic control while also imparting few side-effects. Portulaca oleracea has been traditionally used to manage several diseases due to the anti-oxidant and anti-atherogenic effects it imparts. To better understand the mechanisms associated with potential protective effect of P. oleracea extract against diabetes, alloxan-induced diabetic rats were used in this study.MethodsForty Wistar rats (male, 7–8-wk-old, 140–160 g) were divided into four groups (n = 10/group): Group I (control), Group II (P. oleracea-treated; gavaged with P. oleracea extract daily [at 250 mg/kg] for 4 weeks), Group III (diabetic control; daily IP injection of alloxan [at 75 mg/kg] for 5 days) and Group IV (P. oleracea-pre-treated diabetic; gavaged with P. oleracea extract daily [at 250 mg/kg] for 4 weeks and then daily IP injection of alloxan [at 75 mg/kg] for 5 days). Body weight, food consumption, blood (serum) levels of glucose, C peptide, Hb A1C, insulin, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-6 were determined for all groups.ResultsThe results indicated that while Hb A1C, serum levels of glucose, TNF-α and IL-6 were all significantly decreased in the P. oleracea-pre-treated diabetic rats, these hosts also had significant increases in C peptide and insulin compared to levels in the counterpart diabetic rats. These results were confirmed by the histopathological assessments which showed marked improvement of the destructive effect on pancreatic islet cells induced by alloxan.ConclusionP. oleracea extract is a general tissue protective and regeneartive agent, as evidenced by increasing β-cell mass and therefore improved the glucose metabolism. Thus, stimulation of Portulaca oleracea signaling in β- cells may be a novel therapeutic strategy for diabetes prevention.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017