COMPARISON OF EFFECTS OF ENDURANCE TRAINING AND CONSUMPTION OF BERBERINE CHLORIDE HYDRATE ON THE LIVER ENZYMES AND SERUM BLOOD GLUCOSE IN WISTAR RATS WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

Liver is considered a target organ affected by diabetes mellitus. Exercise training and supplementations could prevent hepatic damage induced by diabetes. The present study was conducted to evaluate the hepatoprotective effects of 6 weeks of endurance exercise and berberine (BBR) usage on streptozotocin (STZ) induced Wistar diabetic rats.

64 healthy male Wistar rats were randomly selected and divided into 8 experimental groups: healthy (N), diabetic (D), diabetic+15 mg/kg BBR (DB15), diabetic+30 mg/kg BBR (DB30), diabetic+aerobictraining+15 mg/kg BBR (DTB15), diabetic + aerobictraining+ 30 mg/kg BBR (DTB30), Non-diabetic+aerobictraining (NT), and diabetic+aerobic training (DT). Diabetes was induced by a single dose of STZ (60 mg/kg, b.w.) given intraperitoneally in sodium citrate buffer. After 6 weeks, blood samples were collected into a plain container for the estimation of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), and blood glucose. Statistical analysis was done with ANOVA and Bonferroni test using SPSS v. 20 software. The significant level was set at p< 0.05.

The result showed that 30 mg of BBR has lowered blood glucose in diabetic groups (p=0.047). Exercise training alone reduced ALT in group D (p=0.001). In addition, compared to group D, ALP was significantly reduced in 15DB (p=0.016) and 30DBT (p=0.028). There were no significant improvements in other variables.

The results demonstrated that BBR with or without exercise possesses some hypoglycemic and hepatoprotective effects and aerobic exercise alone did not have an important significant effect on these markers in diabetic patients.