New Prespectives for Type 2 Diabetes Management

Master's Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Medicine - Therapy grade: A University of Alexandria (Medical Research Institute - Alexandria University) language: English abstract: Increasing evidence has established causative links between obesity chronic inflammation and insulin resistance; the core pathophysiological feature in type 2 diabetes mellitus. This study was designed to examine whether the combination of L-cysteine and metformin would provide additional benefits in reducing oxidative stress inflammation and insulin resistance in streptozotocin-induced type 2 diabetes in rats. Male Wistar rats were fed a high-fat diet (HFD) for 8 weeks to induce insulin resistance after which they were rendered diabetic with low-dose streptozotocin. Diabetic rats were treated with metformin (300 mg/kg/day) L-cysteine (300 mg/kg/day) and their combination along with HFD for another 2 weeks. Control rats were fed normal rat chow throughout the experiment. At the end of treatment fasting blood glucose fasting serum insulin homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR) and serum free fatty acids (FFAs) were measured. Serum levels of the inflammatory markers; monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) C-reactive protein (CRP) and nitrite/nitrate were also determined. The liver was isolated and used for determination of malondialdehyde (MDA) reduced glutathione (GSH) caspase-3 and cytochrome c levels. The hypoglycemic effect of the combination therapy exceeded that of metformin and L-cysteine monotherapies with more improvement in insulin resistance. All treated groups exhibited significant reductions in serum FFAs oxidative stress and inflammatory parameters caspase-3 and cytochrome c levels compared to untreated diabetic rats with the highest improvement observed in the combination group. In conclusion the present results clearly suggest that L-cysteine can be strongly considered as an adjunct to metformin in management of type 2 diabet