Endocrine Abstracts

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive disease of the human brain characterized by memory impairment and disturbance in at least one other thinking function. Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is the kind of diabetes mellitus (DM) that occurs due to the absence or deficiency of insulin receptors and it is usually referred to as maturity-onset DM. The hippocampus, and frontal area of the brain are areas with receptors for insulin, meaning that the hippocampus structure is majorly damaged in AD due to insulin resistance and has a deficiency in the receptors for the hormone insulin implying a decline in memory and learning. Coconut oil is free from a rancid odour or taste. The active ingredients found in coconut oil is the ketone which is seen to be beneficial to those with the disease condition. This research study is primarily aimed at explaining the mechanism through which Alzheimer-like Dementia and T2DM co-exist and also studying the effect of Virgin Coconut oil (VCO) as a possible treatment of these conditions. Male rats of about 10 weeks were gotten and housed in Babcock University Animal House. The rats were split according to their weight into six groups. The high-fat diet was given to the animals for 44days coupled with Streptozotocin for 3 consecutive days to create a model of the T2DM. Neurobehavioral investigations were carried out after administration to evaluate learning and memory and also anxiety using the Barnes maze and Elevated Plus Maze respectively. The control and groups treated with VCO were compared and there was no significant difference but there was a slight decrease in the weight of the animals in the VCO treated group when compared to the control group. Results from the analysis showed the establishment of the disease conditions and the potential of VCO as a treatment for the condition.