Diabetes and Obesity Drug Discovery & Therapy
(Track)
Modulatory Effect of Fenugreek Saponins on the activities of Intestinal and Hepatic Disaccharidase and Glycogen and liver Function of Diabetic Rats
Khaled Hamden
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105, USA.
Abstract:
Diabetes mellitus is a serious health concern all over the world and is often associated with a variety of bodily disorders such as liver toxicity and dysfunction. This study elucidates the effect of fenugreek saponins administration on disaccharidase and glycogen activities in the intestine and liver of surviving diabetic rats. It also evaluates the effect of saponin feeding in terms of a number of liver toxicity indices, namely stress oxidant, liver dysfunction markers and metabolism. The findings indicate that fenugreek saponin fraction significantly modulated the disaccharidase and glycogen enzyme activities in the intestine and liver of the rats, increased the hepatic glycogen content, suppressed the increase of blood glucose level and improved oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). The fenugreek saponin extract was also observed to protect the hepatic function efficiently, which was evidenced by the significant increase of the superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and gluthation peroxidase (GPX) activities and decrease of the hepatic thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) content as well as of aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT) and lactate deshydrogenase (LDH) activities. Fenugreek saponin also induced a notable delay in the absorption of LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides and a remarkable increase in HDL-cholesterol. The histological analysis of the hepatic tissues further established the positive effect of fenugreek saponin. Overall, the findings of the current study indicate that fenugreek saponins exhibit attractive properties and strong potential and can, therefore, be considered a promising candidate for future application as therapeutic agents in biotechnological and bioprocess-based technologies, particularly those interested in the development of anti-diabetic, hepatoprotective and hypolipidemic drugs.
