[Effect of oral ZnCl2 on glucose, Insulin, lipoproteins and liver enzymes in male rats]

Zinc is an essential ion for living and inter the body from different sources. Since Zn++ interfere on many cellular process such as biological function such as calcium chanalls, this study was designed to investigate the effect of oral ZnCl2 on glucose, Insulin, lipoproteins and liver enzymes in male Rats. This experimental study was performed on 48 of Wistar-Albino male Rats randomly allocated into three exprimental and one control groups. Exprimental groups received 50 mg/l, 100 mg/l and 200 mg/l ZnCl2 in drinking water daily for four weeks but the control group received tap water. After four weeks, animals were anesthetized, sacrificed and blood samples were collected. Glucose, insulin, lipoproteins, aspartat amino transferase [AST] and alanine amino transferase [ALT] were measured. Data were analyzed by SPSS-11, ANOVA and Tukey-tests. The mean +/- SD of Cholesterol in group D [85.7 +/- 3.2], HDL in groups B, C, D [66.1 +/- 2.7, 67 +/- 2.18, 68.83 +/- 2.69 mg/dl] and LDL in groups B, C, D [2.8 +/- 0.9, 14.6 +/- 6.3, 13.4 +/- 2.8 mg/dl] respectively were significantly decreased compared with Cholesterol [125.5 +/- 4.9 mg/dl], HDL [80.5 +/- 3 mg/dl] and LDL [30.3 +/- 3.2 mg/dl] in group A. Mean +/- SD of glucose, insulin, triglyceride and liver enzymes did not show any differences among the groups. This study showed that ZnCl2 added on drinking water reduce serum lipoproteins in male Rats

[Effect of Urtica dioica boiling on serum glucose, insulin and lipids in fructose-fed male rats]

Urtica dioica has been consumed as antihypertensive, antilipidemic and antidiabetic herbal medicine. Since consumption of fructose-enriched diet causes insulin resistance, the objective of this study was to evaluate the boiling solution effect of Urtica dioica on serum glucose, insulin and lipids in fructose-fed male rats. The experiment was performed on 28 Wistar-Albino male rats that randomly divided in control and two test groups. Control group intake tap water, but test groups consumed fructose-enriched diet [66%] for 4 weeks. The first test group received 40-60 ml boiling of Urtica dioica on experiment period, but the second test group received the same volume of distilled water during study. At the end, animals were anesthetized and sacrificed and blood samples were collected. Serum glucose, lipids insulin were measured. Obtained data were analyzed by SPSS V.11, via ANOVA and Scheffe tests. Results were expressed as mean +/- SD and p<0.05 were recognized significant. Results showed that serum glucose, insulin, water and food intake were significantly decreased on fructose-fed male rats who received Urtica dioica boiling, compared with those of other test group but other parameters did not show any difference between test groups. These results indicated that Urtica dioica boiling induced decreased insulin resistance in fructose-fed male rats. Further studies are needed to explore the exact mechanism

[Prevalence of hepatitis C among diabetes mellitus patients in Zahedan]

Several clinical studies have recently claimed that HCV infection could trigger the onset of diabetes mellitus [DM]. In order to determine the prevalence of hepatitis C virus [HCV] among patients with type 1, 2 diabetes mellitus [DM] and investigate the influence of several epidemiological factors on HCV infection, we conducted this study. In this case-control study we evaluated 505 diabetic patients [135 male, 370 female with the mean age of 54.5 years] who had referred to Diabetic clinic in Boo-Ali hospital [a teaching hospital in south east of Iran] in 2004. Serologic testing for anti- HCV was done using a third-generation commercial Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay [ELISA] and Real-time-PCR [HCV RNA] in order to confirm the anti-HCV positive samples. Diabetic patients [were divided in two groups according to their HCV antibody status and were analyzed for the following variables: age, sex, type of diabetes, duration of disease, mode of therapy, late diabetic complication, previous blood transfusions, intravenous drug addiction, hospital admissions and major surgical procedures. Then results were compared with the findings from blood donors. HCV infection was detected in one patient who had history of hospitalization and blood transfusion. However, a higher prevalence of HCV infection was not observed in diabetic patients in comparison with blood donors [P=0.46]. There was no correlation between HCV and diabetic type, duration, age, sex [P>0.05]. Upon the results of our study, we conclude that HCV infection is not a trigger factor for DM; therefore it should not be listed among the various extrahepatic manifestations of this viral infection. Although, further studies, possibly multicentre, are needed to estimate prevalence of HCV in diabetic patients