Objective To observe the effect of curcumin on glucose and lipid metabolism and
oxidative stress in diabetic rats. Methods
Diabetic model was induced by a single intraperitoneal injection of streptozoticin(STZ) to male Wistar rats at a dose of 60mg/kg body weight and was randomly divided into two groups: untreated diabetes (group DM,n=10) and diabetes treated with curcumin 200mg·kg -1 ·d -1 (group Cur,n=10). A normal control group(group normal,,n=10) was also designed.After treated for eight weeks,the levels of
blood glucose(BG) and glycosylated hemoglobin(GHb, HbA1c),serum total cholesterol(TC) ,triglyceride(TG),low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), MDA and activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) were evaluated.Results The levels of serum TC,TG and LDL-C were all significantly increased in diabetic rats as compared with normal rats(P<0.01,P<0.05,P<0.01), while the level of HDL-C was lower than that in normal group(P<0.05); the activities of SOD and CAT were lower and MDA level was higher in diabetic rats than those in normal group(both P<0.01). All these abnormalities were ameliorated when treated with curcumin. The levels of BG and HbA1c in diabetic rats were significantly higher than those in normal rats(both P<0.01), there was some decline of them while treated with curcumin as compared with group DM ,but had no significant discrepancy. Conclusion Curcumin can effectively correct the disorder of lipid metabolism and inhibit
oxidative stress in diabetic rats.