Efficacy of Vanadyl Sulfate and Selenium Tetrachloride as Anti-Diabetic Agents against Hyperglycemia and Oxidative Stress Induced by Diabetes Mellitus in Male Rats

The use of metals in medicine has grown in popularity in clinical and commercial settings. In this study, the immune-protecting effects and the hypoglycemic and antioxidant activity of vanadyl sulfate (VOSO4) and/or selenium tetrachloride (Se) on oxidative injury, DNA damage, insulin resistance, and hyperglycemia were assessed. Fifty male albino rats were divided into five groups, and all treatments were administrated at 9:00 a.m. daily for 60 successive days: control, STZ (Streptozotocin; 50 mg/kg of STZ was given to 6 h fasted animals in a single dose, followed by confirmation of diabetic state occurrence after 72 h by blood glucose estimation at >280 mg/dl), STZ (Diabetic) plus administration of VOSO4 (15 mg/kg) for 60 days, STZ (Diabetic) plus administration of selenium tetrachloride (0.87 mg/Kg), and STZ plus VOSO4 and, after 1/2 h, administration of selenium tetrachloride at the above doses. The test subjects’ blood glucose, insulin hormone, HbA1C, C-peptide, antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, myeloperoxidase, and xanthine oxidase), markers of lipid peroxidation (MDA), and histological sections of pancreatic tissues were evaluated, and a comet assay was performed. Histological sections in pancreas tissues were treated as indicators of both VOSO4 and selenium tetrachloride efficacy, either alone or combined, for the alleviation of STZ toxicity. The genotoxicity of diabetes mellitus was assessed, and the possible therapeutic roles of VOSO4 or selenium tetrachloride, or both, on antioxidant enzymes were studied. The findings show that the administration of VOSO4 with selenium tetrachloride reduced oxidative stress to normal levels, lowered blood glucose levels, and elevated insulin hormone. Additionally, VOSO4 with selenium tetrachloride had a synergistic effect and significantly decreased pancreatic genotoxicity. The data clearly show that both VOSO4 and selenium tetrachloride inhibit pancreatic and DNA injury and improve the oxidative state in male rats, suggesting that the use of VOSO4 with selenium tetrachloride is a promising synergistic potential ameliorative agent in the diabetic animal model.

Frequency of Neonatal Hypoglycemia Among Women Diagnosed with Maternal Hyperglycemia

Objective: To determine frequency of neonatal hypoglycemia, in maternal hyperglycemia Subject and Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted at department of Pathology with collaboration of gynae and OBS department of PNS SHIFA Karachi. Study duration was six months from March 2015 to August 2015. All pregnant women who reported at antenatal clinics of PNS SHIFA Hospital and diagnosed as the cases of hyperglycinemia were included in the study. Maternal blood glucose testing was done according to WHO guidelines i.e. fasting sample, ingestion of 75 g glucose, 01 h and 02 h sample for plasma glucose estimation. Neonatal blood glucose was checked immediately after birth by glucometer. All the data was collected via study proforma. Results: A total of 157 pregnant women were studied their average age was 28.20±4.67 years. Caesarean section was done in 62.4% cases and 58.6% babies were males. Neonatal hypoglycemia was observed among 24.8% of the cases. Neonatal hypoglycemia was statistically significant according to gestational age (p- 0.012), while statistically insignificant according to parity (p-0.184). Conclusion: As per study conclusion, the neonatal hypoglycemia was observed to be highly prevalent among neonates of diabetic mothers as 24.8%. It was found to be statistically significant according to gestational age. Keywords: Gestational diabetes mellitus, Neonates, Hypoglycemia

Association Between Transcription Factor 7-Like-2 Polymorphisms and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in a Ghanaian Population

Type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have been strongly associated with single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the TCF7L2 gene. This study investigated the association between rs12255372, rs7903146 and T2DM in a Ghanaian population. A case-control study design was used for this study. A total of 106 T2DM patients and 110 control participants were selected. Basic data collected included body mass index, blood pressure and socio-demographics. Fasting blood samples were collected and used for serum lipid analysis, HbA1c, plasma glucose estimation and DNA extraction. Common and allele-specific primers were designed for genotyping using the Modified Tetra-Primer Amplification assay. Associations were evaluated using logistic regression models. The rs7903146 risk variant was significantly associated with 2.16 vs 4.06 increased odds for T2DM in patients

Blood glucose concentration measured in EDTA/F plasma and serum in a referral clinical laboratory in Nepal

Background: Sodium fluoride tubes or serum separator tubes are mostly used for blood glucose estimation in the clinical laboratories of Nepal. The study aimed to investigate the stability of glucose in samples collected in serum separator tubes and sodium fluoride/sodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic tubes by comparing the glucose concentration at 30 minutes and 4 hours collected and handled differently to simulate prolonged sample transport between venipunctures, centrifugation, and measurement.Materials and Methods: Samples were collected from healthy volunteers into two different serum separator tubes and two different sodium fluoride/sodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic tubes. Glucose concentration was measured at 30 minutes after venipuncture and compared with results from the same samples analyzed at four hours and with the results from tubes centrifuged with a delay of 4 hours. Differences between baseline and respective delayed analyzed glucose values for each tube type were tested using the Student’s paired t-test and Deming regression.Results: When comparing plasma glucose at 30 minutes, glycolysis caused a relative reduction of the glucose concentration in serum at 30 minutes of 3.1 %, which is only slightly less than at 4 hours (3.7 %). This is still substantially more than the reduction in plasma at 4 hours (1.3 %). Surprisingly, the difference between plasma glucose at 30 minutes and serum glucose at 4 hours was only 1.9% which is not clinically significant.Conclusions: The Na-F/Na2 EDTA tubes and serum separator tubes can be used interchangeably for analysis of blood glucose up to 4 hours if centrifuged within 30 minutes.

Interplay of Transcription Factor 7-Like-2 Polymorphisms with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in a Ghanaian Population

Background Type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have been strongly associated with single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the TCF7L2 gene. This study investigated the interplay between rs12255372 and rs7903146 with T2DM in a Ghanaian population. Methods A case-control design was used for this study. A total of 106 T2DM patients and 110 apparently healthy control participants were selected. Basic data collected included body mass index, blood pressure and socio-demographics. Fasting blood samples were collected and used for serum lipid analysis, HbA1c, glucose estimation and DNA extraction. Common and allele-specific primers were designed for genotyping using the Modified Tetra-Primer Amplification assay. Associations were evaluated using logistic regression models. Results The rs7903146 risk variant was significantly associated with 2.16 vs 4.06 increased odds for T2DM in patients < 60 years vs ≥ 60 years. Both rs7903146 and rs12255372 were significantly associated with increased odds of T2DM in women, overweight/obese; negative T2DM family history and low-HDL-C. In a multivariate model, rs7903146 but not rs12255372 was significantly associated with 2.18, 5.01 and 2.25 increased odds of T2DM, under the codominant, recessive and additive model, respectively (p < 0.05). Haplotype analysis showed that rs7903146 and rs12255372 SNPs are weakly associated (D’=0.021; r2 = 0.0001). Conclusion The association between rs7903146 and rs12255372 with T2DM looks to be more highly associated in a subgroup- women and those without T2DM family history, yet have cardiometabolic risk.

Antidiarrheal Potential of Methanol Extract of Combretum dolichopetalum and its Fractions in Wistar Albino Rats

Aim: The study investigated the antidiarrheal potential of methanol extract of Combretum dolichopetalum and its solvent fractions. Method: Leaves of Combretum dolichopetalum were extracted using methanol as solvent. This was classified as the crude methanol extract (MECD). The crude extract was further fractionated using column chromatographic techniques to get various fractions. Castor oil was used to induce diarrhea in the animals, following atropine and the plant extracts to confirm any antidiarrheal activity. Fecal excretion and absorption/secretion ratio, enteropooling, small intestinal transit, glucose estimation, free fatty acid estimation and fecal osmolarity were employed to serve as antidiarrheal biomarker. Result: result showed improvements in all studied biomarkers compared to the negative control. The extract worked similarly like the standard drug used atropine. Conclusion: From the result of this study, it can be concluded that the methanol extract of Combretum dolichopetalum and it fractions contains compounds with antidiarrheal potentials, and this justifies it use in ethnomedicine.