| Summary: | This represented study aims to evaluate the protective effects of two natural antioxidants, taurine and/or ginseng and their mixture on lipid profile and some parameters indicative of myocardial status in streptozotocin-diabetic rats.
Adult male albino rats (Sprague Dawley strain) were divided into five groups, a control and four experimental groups; each of them contains five rats. The experimental animals were injected (i.p) with 40 mg/kg body weight of streptozotocin (STZ) daily for 2 successive days to induce diabetes. The first group of diabetic rats was considered as a diabetic group and left without treatment. The second group was injected i.p with 500 mg/kg body weight of taurine daily for one month and served as diabetic plus taurine group. In the third group, ginseng was given orally at a dose of 400 mg/kg body weight daily for the same previous period. The last group received both taurine and ginseng treatments at the aforementioned doses and through the same routes for one month.
The results indicated that the administration of taurine or ginseng showed a remarkable amelioration in glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1C), insulin and free T3 levels. The maximum amelioration in the level of glucose, HbA1C, insulin and free T3 occurred in diabetic rats that received the mixture of taurine and ginseng. Additionally, treatment of diabetic rats with two antioxidants induced a significant reduction in serum cholesterol, triglycerides and low density lipoprotein levels. The antioxidants also displayed a significant decrease in the activities of cardiac enzymes, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), creatine kinase (CK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and the levels of serum endothelin-1 with a significant elevation in the levels of serum total nitric oxide (TNO) in the diabetic animals group. The results suggest that a combination treatment between taurine and ginseng might represent the treatment of patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) which is related to diabetic disorder.
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