Effect of feeding of artemisia Hebra alba on glucokinase and ATPase activity in normal and diabetic rabbits

Since acute or chronic feeding on extract of the plant herb Artemisia herbal alba [AHA] was shown to reduce fasting blood sugar level in alloxan-diabetic [ALX-D] rabbits without altering plasma insulin or intestinal glucose absorption, the following work was done to show its effect on hepatic glucokinase [GK] and dinitrophenal [DNP]-stimulated mitochondrial ATPase [DSM-A TPase] activities. Diabetes mellitus resulted in a significant decrease in the activity of hepatic glucokinase [GK] [P < 0.05 after 4 weeks] and DSM-ATPase [60% after 12. weeks]. Daily oral treatment with AHA [0.5 p/kg/day] for 16 weeks reduced fasting blood glucose in normal [from 113.8 +/- 11.0 to 80.8 +/- 8.4 mg/Dl] and ALX-D animals [from 385.3 +/- 35.6 to 231.8 +/- 12.5 mg/Dl], and impeded the reduction in activities of [GK] [P < 0.05 after 4 weeks] and ATPase [P < 0.05 after 4 weeks] in ALX-D rabbits when compared with untreated animals. These effects were less than that of insulin, but persisted for I week after AHA withdrawal. Fasting for 72h reduced GK activity in normal animals [from 0.73 +/- 008 to 0.37 +/- 0.04 micro mol/g tissue/min] and diabetic animals [from 0.46 +/- 0.03 to 0.30 +/- 0.03 micro mol/g tissue/min], and this was partially impeded by AHA pretreatment. It is concluded that AHA constituents might have an insulin-like orpotentiating. action which protects KG and ATPase activities in liver and possibly other tissues and help to control the hyperglycaemia of diabetes, but can potentiate the hypoglycaemia of starvation

comparative study of different methods of insulin administration on blood glucose, serum phosphate and potassium in diabetic rabbits

A study employing different methods of insulin administration was done to compare their effects on blood glucose, serum phosphate and potassium levels in altoxan-diabetic rabbits [ALX-D]. Maximum reduction in blood glucose level occurred in 1,2,3, and 4h after intravenous [lV] intraperitoneal [IP], subcutaneous [SC], or eye drops methods, respectively. The maximum reduction in serum phosphate and potassium levels occurred at 1,2h after IV, IP, respectively, and 3h after SC and eye drops methods. The recovery to original normal values was also quicker with IV or IP methods than SC or eye drops methods of administration. It was interesting to note that the magnitude of insulin action did not significantly differ between SC and eye drops method and was comparable to IP or IV methods of administration

Diabetes and adenosine triphosphatase: the effects of insulin, thyroxin and inhibitors on atpase

The enzyme ATPase was obtained from liver mitochondria of normal [N] and alloxan diabetic [D] rabbits. Results of the present study show that diabetes inhibited DNP-stimulated ATPase activity [40%].Insulin had no effect on the enzyme activity in N rabbits, but restored it to normal level in D animals. Thyroxine administered in vivo increased ATPase activity in both N [55%]and D [50%] rabbits. However, thiouracill given orally decreased enzyme activity in N [45%] and in D [32%] rabbits, but the enzyme activity is restored to normal level after treatment with thyroxine. The effect of some inhibitors of adenine nucleotide translocase on ATPase were carried out, it was found that, the enzyme activity is inhibited in N and D rabbits by sulfobromophthalein [I [50]; N = 12,D = 6 n mol/mg protein]; agaric acid [I[50]; N > 40,D = 25 n mol/mg protein]; hexachlorophene, 12 n mol/mg protein inhibited the enzyme activity [47% in N and 28% in D]. However, 2-p-chlorophenyl-4 [3,4-dihydroxy-phenyl]- thiazole is a weak inhibitor