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Background: Many traditional therapies have been proposed as alternative regimens for treatment of diabetes mellitus. The Morus Alba (MA) leaf is a natural therapeutic compound which is shown to have antidiabetic properties. The aim of the present study was to determine whether MA leaf extract is capable of regulating liver enzymes that are involved in glucose metabolism pathways in normal and Streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats.
Methods: Forty healthy adult male Wistar rats (eight weeks old) weighing about 250 ± 10 g were taken for this experiment. The rats were divided into 4 groups with 10 rats in each group and treated through a gavage tube for a period of two months as follows: group I: non diabetic control rats with distilled water; group II: non diabetic rats with 1.0 g/kg per day; group III: diabetic control rats with distilled water and group IV: diabetic rats with MA 1.0 g/kg per day. At the end of the 8th week, serum glucose, insulin and hepatic glucokinase activity were measured using standard methods and compared between diabetic and healthy rats. We also assessed the expression of phosphofructokinase-1 enzyme at the level of mRNA, using a Real Time-PCR method.
Results: Findings of the present study demonstrated that MA leaf extract can significantly increase liver glucokinase activity and serum insulin levels in diabetic rats (p < 0.05). It also significantly attenuated the serum glucose level in rats compared to the control groups (p < 0.05). Also, the body weight of diabetic rats was significantly (p < 0.05) decreased as compared to their initial weight. However, the body weights of diabetic rats treated with MA increased in the same way as normal control rats.
Conclusions: The present findings suggest that the antihyperglycemic action of MA is mediated by increasing liver glucokinase activity and serum insulin level. These results are additional, definite evidence supporting MA as traditional medicine for diabetic patients.
DOI: 10.7754/Clin.Lab.2012.120611
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