The effect of combined Atorvastatin and zinc sulfate on serum level of insulin, glucose, and histology of pancreas in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

Diabetes is an abnormality in metabolism, which occurs because of hyperglycemia resulting from failure in insulin release, function, or both. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of combined atorvastatin and zinc on serum levels of glucose and insulin and morphology of pancreas in type 1 diabetic rats.
In this experimental study, 40 female Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups (n=8): normal control (NC), diabetic control (DC), diabetic rats treated with 20mg/kg atorvastatin (DA), 30mg/kg zinc oxide (DZ) and combination of each drug in half dose (DZA). Diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal injection of 60 mg/kg streptozotocin. One week after streptozotocin injection, animals were treated with gastric gavage daily for one month. At the end of the treatment, rats sacrificed and fasting blood samples were collected from cervical vein and serum levels of glucose and insulin were measured with commercial kits by spectrophotometery and elisa, respectively. The pancreas of rats were removed and fixed and after tissue processing stained with H&E for light microscopic investigations. At the end, the data were analyzed statistically by SPSS software, ANOVA and Tukey tests.
The results showed that zinc and atorvastatin caused the decrease of blood sugar and increase of insulin, as well as the decrease of the complications of diabetes, such as damage to pancreatic tissue, and reducing the number and diameter of the pancreatic islets. The combined of zinc and atorvastatin followed the decreasing of the lower levels of diabetic complications, caused the significant decreasing (p It seems that a combination of atorvastatin and zinc has synergistic benefits to control of the glucose levels and insulin as well as improving pancreatic islets