A comparative study of thiamine with metformin on fasting blood glucose of diabetic albino rats

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONDiabetes mellitus refers to a group of common metabolic disorders that share the phenotype of hyperglycaemia. Various distinct types of DM are caused by a complex interaction of genetics and environmental factors. Depending on the aetiology of DM factors contributing to hyperglycaemia include reduced insulin secretion, decreased glucose utilization, and increased glucose production. When fully expressed diabetes is characterized by fasting hyperglycaemia. The effects of diabetes mellitus include long term damage, dysfunction and failure of various organs especially heart, kidneys, eyes and blood vessels. Diabetes may present with characteristic symptoms such as thirst, polyurea, blurring of vision, polyphagia, and weight loss and in its most severe form diabetic ketoacidosis and non ketotic hyperosmolar state, which in absence of effective intervention lead to stupor, coma and death. At present, India is considered as the diabetic capital of the world by WHO. There are approximately 3.5 crore diabetics in India, and this figure is expected to increase up to 5.2 crore by 2025. Every fifth patient visiting a consulting physician is a diabetic. By the year 2025 it is predicted that India will have a rise of 59 percent of diabetics in the population -which is the highest number of diabetic patients in the world. 2 ABSTRACTBackground: Thiamine is a member of the vitamin B family. Thiamine is necessary for normal insulin synthesis and secretion. In diabetes thiamine and its derivative benfotiamine showed promising results in prevention of microvascular complications. Some experimental and clinical studies have shown the antihyperglycaemic effect of thiamine. This study compared the antihyperglycaemic effect of thiamine with metformin in streptozotocinnicotinamide induced diabetic albino rats. Methods: 24 albino rats were taken and divided into four groups of six rats in each group. The groups were normal control, diabetic control, diabetic rats treated with thiamine, diabetic rats treated with metformin. Diabetes was induced in three groups by intraperitoneal injection of Streptozotocin in the dose of 60 mg/kg. To have an ideal type 2 diabetes model nicotinamide was administered 120 mg/ kg intraperitoneally fifteen minutes before streptozotocin administration. After successful induction of diabetes thiamine and metformin were given to the respective group for a period of 6 weeks. Fasting blood glucose was estimated on day 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 of treatment. Results: In this study both thiamine and metformin showed significant antihyperglycaemic effect (p<0.05). Further studies are needed to evaluate and compare the antihyperglycaemic effect of thiamine with other established anti diabetic drugs. Conclusions: From this study we concluded that individually both thiamine and metformin were effective in controlling hyperglycaemia but metformin was better in achieving normal mean FBS. Further studies are required to validate the antihyperglycaemic effect of thiamine. Study taking different doses of thiamine ...