Asiatic acid mitigates hyperglycemia and reduces islet fibrosis in a spontaneous type 2 diabetic animal model. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Asiatic acid mitigates hyperglycemia and reduces islet fibrosis in Goto-Kakizaki rat, a spontaneous type 2 diabetic animal model.
Chin J Nat Med. 2015 Jul ;13(7):529-34. PMID: 26233843
Xue Wang
The Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rat is a spontaneous type 2 diabetic animal model, which is characterized by a progressive loss of beta islet cells with fibrosis. In the present study, the hypoglycemic effect of asiatic acid (AA) in GK rats was examined. GK rats receiving AA at a daily dose of 25 mg·kg(-1) for four weeks showed a significant reduction in blood glucose levels. Age-matched normal Wistar rats were given 0.5% sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC-Na) solution for the same periods and used as control. Compared to the normal Wistar rats, GK rats treated with AA showed improvement ininsulin resistance partially through decreasing glucose level (P<0.01) and insulin level (P<0.05). Furthermore, the results of immunohistochemistry indicate that AA treatment reduced islet fibrosis in GK rats. Fibronectin, a key protein related to islet fibrosis, was over-expressed in GK rats, which was reversed significantly by AA treatment (P<0.05). These findings suggest that AA has a beneficial effect on lowering blood glucose levels in GK rats and improves fibrosis of islets in diabetes, which may play a role in the prevention of islets dysfunction.