The Metabolic Effects of Echinochrome Pigment Extracted from Sea Urchin on Diabetic Rats

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2018 in the subject Biology - Zoology grade: 4 Cairo University (Faculty of Science) language: English abstract: Diabetes mellitus is one of the most public metabolic disorders. It is mainly classified into type 1 and type 2. Echinochrome (Ech) is a pigment from sea urchins that has antioxidant anti-microbial anti-inflammatory and chelating abilities. The present study aimed to investigate the anti-diabetic mechanisms of Ech pigment instreptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Thirty-six male Wistar albino rats were divided into two main groups (18 rats/group). Each group was divided into 3 subgroups (6 rats/subgroup); control diabetic and Ech subgroups. Diabetic models were induced by a single dose of streptozotocin (60 mg/kg i.p) for type 1 diabetes and by a high fat diet for 4 weeks before the injection of streptozotocin (30 mg/kg i.p) for type 2 diabetes. Diabetic groups were treated orally with Ech (1 mg/kg body weight in 10% DMSO) daily for 4 weeks. Ech groups showed a reduction in the concentrations of glucose globulins triglycerides (TG) total cholesterol (TC) low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) creatinine urea uric acid malondialdehyde (MDA) and the activities ofarginase aspartate aminotransferase (AST) alanine aminotransferase (ALT) alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT). While it caused general increase in the levels of insulin total bilirubin (TB) direct bilirubin (DB) indirect bilirubin (IB) total protein (TP) albumin nitric oxide (NO) and the activities of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) hexokinase glutathione-S-transferase (GST) superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione reduced (GSH). The histopathological investigation showed partial restoration of pancreatic islet cells and clear improvement in the hepatic and kidney architecture. The results of this study clearly show that Ech has anti-diabetic potential in both types of diabetes.