Lycopene Ameliorated Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Type 2 Diabetic Rats

Abstract

We aim to study the antioxidative and anti-inflammatory effects of lycopene on type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) rats, anticipating a complementary strategy for the prevention of long-term complications of T2DM. In this study, rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes were divided into four groups, receiving a 10-week lycopene intervention: DM, DM + low dose of lycopene (L), DM + medium dose of lycopene (M), and DM + high dose of lycopene (H) group with 0, 5, 10, and 15 mg/kg BW lycopene, respectively. At the end of intervention, fasted blood glucose (FBG) level, oxidative stress indicators, including glycosylated hemoglobin (GHb), glycosylated low-density lipoprotein, oxidized lowdensity lipoprotein (ox-LDL). and malondialdehyde (MDA), as well as antioxidants, that is, catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and inflammatory factors like tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were determined. The results indicated that oxidative stress and inflammatory factors were elevated in DM rats. Lycopene intervention decreased the FBG level in DM rats compared with the untreated ones. It revealed a dose-dependent effect on decreasing serum oxidative stress biomarkers, including GHb, ox-LDL, and MDA. Inflammatory factors (TNF-α and CRP) in DM rats were also decreased by lycopene intervention. Total antioxidative capacity as well as the activities of antioxidants in DM rats including CAT, SOD, and GPx were increased after lycopene intervention. We conclude that lycopene protects against diabetic progression and prevents further complications of diabetic rats through ameliorating oxidative stress and inflammation, as well as improving the systemic antioxidative capacity.Practical Application: According to our study, lycopene intakes at experimental dosages appear to have beneficial effects on ameliorating oxidative stress and inflammation in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) rats, suggesting that lycopene might help improving T2DM progression when its daily intake is up to about 0.79 mg/kg BW in humans, which approximately equals to 5 mg/kg BW in rats. However, more clinical trials are needed to provide a more reliable and convincing conclusion in humans.

Beneficial Effect of Lycopene on Diabetes Mellitus and its Possible Mechanism: A Review

“…Oxidative stress in the aorta can cause endothelial dysfunction, an initiator and contributing factor to cardiovascular complications of diabetes. 16 Decreased MDA and increased SOD by lycopene treatment, as shown by Zhu et al, are also consistent with many other studies 18,24,25,30,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] . A similar study conducted on patients with diabetes showed that lycopene supplementation (4 mg once daily for 3 months) can reduce oxidative stress, as seen from a decrease in MDA and xanthine oxidase levels and an increase in antioxidants such as SOD, GSH, GPx, and GR.…”

“…28 In DM, there is an increase of oxidative stress biomarkers ). 29,30 Due to the highly reactive nature of ROS and its short half-life, it is easier to estimate oxidative stress in DM by measuring its oxidation target products, such as lipid peroxidation products (MDA, ox-LDL, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances [TBARS]), oxidized proteins (protein carbonyl), and nucleic acid oxidation product (8-OHdG). 31 In a study conducted by Zhu et al, administration of lycopene attenuates the increase in MDA and a decrease of SOD activity in the aorta of diabetic rats significantly and dose-dependently.…”

“…A recent study also showed that lycopene decreases TNF-α and CRP in type 2 DM rats. 30 A study conducted by Yin et al found that lycopene decreased pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-α and IL-1β, and decreased NF-κB levels in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus of fructose-drinking rats given lycopene compared with those of fructose-drinking rats with insulin resistance. 50 In mice with STZinduced DN, there was a significant increase in the expression of NF-κB and TNF-α in renal tissue, which was reduced by lycopene administration.…”

Dietary Intake of Carotenoid-Rich Vegetables Reduces Visceral Adiposity in Obese Japanese men—A Randomized, Double-Blind Trial

“…Intake of carotenoids has been associated with risk reduction of lifestyle-related diseases [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ] and high lycopene levels on plasma have been associated with a reduction of the cardiovascular disease risk [ 15 ]. Some reports described potential mechanisms of lycopene function for the prevention of lifestyle-related diseases.…”

The in vitro investigation of lycopene effects on post-thawed ram sperm

“…Carotenoids such as beta-carotene and lycopene play an important role in antioxidant defence, protecting the plasma membrane against lipid peroxidation (Tuncer et al, 2014). The antioxidant effect of lycopene has been demonstrated in diabetic rats, in which the compound protected against diabetic progression, and prevented further complications, because of its capacity to refine oxidative stress and inflammation, and improve the systemic antioxidative capacity (Zheng et al, 2019). In addition, recent studies have presented encouraging data about the use of lycopene in freezing extenders for bovine semen (Tuncer et al, 2014;Bucak et al, 2015) and turkey semen (Rosato et al, 2012a), including the preservation of motility, acrosome and DNA integrity, and a reduction in sperm lipid peroxidation.…”