Myocardial and metabolic dysfunction in type 2 diabetic rats: impact of ghrelin.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is commonly associated with metabolic and cardiac dysfunctions. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of ghrelin on metabolic and cardiac dysfunctions in a type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) rat model. For this, 48 male adult Sprague–Dawley rats were divided equally into 4 groups: Group I, fed normal chow, served as normal control group; Groups II–IV, were fed a high-fat diet for 2 weeks followed by injection of streptozotocin (STZ) (35 mg/kg body mass) to create a model of T2DM; Group II, were not treated; Group III, were treated with the vehicle (saline); Group IV, were treated with ghrelin (40 µg/kg body mass) twice daily for 10 days. The untreated diabetic rats showed a significant increase in serum fasting blood glucose, insulin homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) index, triglycerides (TGs), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), total serum cholesterol (TC), and body mass, with a decrease in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (p < 0.05). Hearts isolated ...