Effects of Co-Administration of Folic Acid and/or Magnesium on Biomarkers of Oxidative Stress in Streptozotocin- Induced Diabetic Wistar Rat

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a global public health problem with increasing prevalence. It is a chronic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia and the late development of vascular and neuropathic complications. This work was designed to study the Effects of Co-administration of Folic Acid and/or Magnesium on Biomarkers of Oxidative Stress in Streptozotocin- Induced Diabetic Wistar Rat. Healthy albino rats weighing between 150g and 200g were used. The rats were randomly allotted into six groups, each containing five albino rats respectively. Five of the groups (II, III IV V and VI) were induced with diabetes by single intraperitoneal (i.p) injection of freshly prepared in 0.1 mol/L citrate buffered solution (pH 4.5) of streptozotocin (Sigma Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) at a dose of 60 mg/kg body weight. Control (vehicle) rats were injected with equal volume of 0.1 mol/L citrate buffer. Four days after STZ injection, diabetes induction was confirmed by measuring fasting blood glucose level in a tail vein blood samples using ACCU-CHEK compact plus glucometer (Roche, France). Rats with glucose level of 200 mg/dl or higher were considered as diabetic. After the induction of diabetes the rats were treated using the FA and Mg separately and in combination respectively according to group daily, whereas, the other group (I) was not given any treatment and this served as the normal control, providing a baseline data. The results of the present study indicated significant aberrations in the lipid profile markers associated with carbohydrate, protein and lipid metabolisms in STZ induced-Type I diabetic The diabetic groups showed increased levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), reduction in the level of antioxidant defense status, catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) to counteract the diabetes associated oxidative damaged was also well evident. These anomalies were all ameliorated to about normal values after four weeks of treatment with FA+Mg. This suggests the synergistic beneficial effects of folic acid and Magnesium against STZ-induced diabetes in Wistar Rats.