The effects of date consumption on serumic levels of glucose, lipids and lipoproteins in diabetic rats

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is an important problem amongst human and animals. In veterinary medicine too, diabetes mellitus occurs in many animals particularly household pets. This study was conducted in order to evaluate the effect of date consumption on serumic levels of glucose, triglyceride, cholesterol, LDL, VLDL and HDL in rats suffering from experimental diabetes mellitus. Thirty male wistar rats with the age of 8 weeks and mean body weight of 200±20 gr were selected and divided into 5 groups so that there were 6 rats per group. The groups consisted of day one healthy control, final day healthy control, healthy treatment consuming date, diabetic treatment consuming date and diabetic control group. Diabetic treatment and control groups received 100 mg/kg of alloxan subcutaneously to create experimental diabetes. The two healthy control groups also received equal amounts of normal saline solution subcutaneously. The injections were repeated a week later in all groups. After observing the diabetes symptoms including polydipsia, polyuria, glucosuria and hyperglycemia in groups that were given alloxan, feeding of healthy and diabetic treatment groups with equal ratio of date and pellet was initiated. Final day healthy control group and diabetic control group were fed only with pellet. The groups were fed for 10 days following the start of diabetes symptoms. Blood samples were collected from all groups on day 10. Evaluation of the serumic levels of glucose, cholesterol and LDL revealed statistically significant increase in diabetic control group in comparison with the healthy control groups and also in healthy and diabetic treatment groups consuming date as compared with diabetic control and healthy groups (p

Keywords

• Diabetes
• Alloxan
• dates
• serum biochemical parameters
• Rat