Endocrine Abstracts

Diabetes mellitus is life threatening endocrine disorder with high morbidity and mortality, which is featured by persistent high blood glucose levels due to defect in the insulin secretion, insulin action or both. Extreme high blood glucose levels associated with diabetes leads to various organ dysfunction particularly nervous system, eye, cardiovascular system, and kidney. Kaempferol is a dietary bioflavonoid that is common in plant-derived foods and used in traditional medicine. In this study, we proposed to study the effects of kaempferol on carbohydrate metabolic enzymes in streptozotocin diabetic rats. Diabetes was stimulated in male Albino rats (wistar strains) of 180–200 g via i.p. streptozotocin injection (40 mg/kg). Plasma glucose, insulin, hemoglobin (Hb) and HbA1c, glycogen, and carbohydrate metabolic enzymes such as glucokinase, glucose 6-phosphatase, fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and hepatic marker enzymes, such as aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gammaglutamyl transferase (γ-GGT) in normal and streptozotocin-diabetic rats were altered in diabetic rats. Administration of three different doses of kaempferol (50, 100, and 200 mg/body weight (BW)) or glibenclamide disolved in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), to different groups of diabetic rats were done for 45 days. Kaempferol prevented the above changes and improved towards normalcy. No significant effect was observed in normal rats treated with kaempferol (200 mg/kg per BW). Thus, our results show that kaempferol at 100 mg/kg of BW possesses a potential antihyperglycemic effect that is comparable with glibenclamide.