Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Treculia Africana (TA) has been used as an anti-inflammatory agent by the Yoruba people of West Africa and is also known to be a component of an ancient anti-diabetic remedy used in the Western and Middle belt areas of Nigeria. This study was conducted to investigate the anti-hyperglycemic property of the aqueous seed extract of Treculia Africana (TAE) and also to evaluate the potential of this extract in reversing the toxicity inflicted by experimentally-induced diabetes on the testes.

Methods: Twenty adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into four groups (A-D) of five rats each. Groups A, B and C were injected with alloxan while Group D served as the normal control and received distilled water only. After 4 weeks of sustained hyperglycemia, groups A, B, and C rats were administered TAE (200 mg/kg per day), glibenclamide (10 mg/kg per day) and distilled water, respectively. Body weight and blood glucose concentrations were evaluated. At the end of 8 weeks all animals were sacrificed and the testes were processed for light microscopy.

Results: TAE caused significant reduction (36.27%) in blood glucose concentration at P<0.001 compared to the diabetic control, while glibenclamide caused 70.61% reduction. The weight of the testes of TAE-treated rats showed significant increase compared with the untreated diabetic group. The distorted seminiferous tubules of the diabetic control rats had just a few scattered spermatogonia and spermatids while the testes of the TAE-treated diabetic rats showed seminiferous tubules lined by Sertoli cells, with relatively normal germinal epithelium. Stereologic analysis showed increased germinal epithelial thickness, cross-sectional area and volume for treated groups compared to the diabetic control group.

Conclusion: Histologic and stereologic analysis indicate that TAE would be a good adjunct in the treatment of diabetes mellitus associated with reproductive deficiencies.