Abstract

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a multi-factorial debilitating disorder of metabolism, usually due to a combination of hereditary and environmental causes, resulting in abnormally high blood sugar levels (hyperglycemia) as a result of defects in either insulin secretion or insulin action in the body. DM is usually accompanied by hypomagnesemia. This study was aimed at investigating the effect of oral magnesium supplementation on pancreatic gene expression of insulin and PDX-1 in type-2 streptozotocin-nicotinamide induced Sprague dawley diabetic rats. A total of 24Sprague dawleyrats (Four groups of six rats each), were used for this study; Group 1: Normal rats (CONTROL) given distilled water for 4weeks; Group 2: Metformin + Magnesium treated rats (DMM) orally given 100mg/kg and 1000mg/kg body weight respectively for 4weeks; Group 3: Metformin treated diabetic rats (DM), orally given 100mg/kg body weight for 4weeks; Group 4: Diabetic untreated control rats (DU) given distilled water for 4weeks. Measured data were analyzed statistically. The result revealed that there was significant (p<0.05) increase in the feed and water intake of the treated rats but the metformin-magnesium supplement treated group showed more increase when compared with only metformin treated group. PDX-1 and insulin gene expression levels were significantly (p<0.05) higher in the control when compared with all the diabetic groups. However, PDX-1 and insulin mRNA levels were significantly (p<0.05) higher in DMM, when compared with DM. DMM showed improvements when compared with DM which suggests magnesium supplementation as an adjunct therapy with metformin may help inthe regeneration of the beta cells of the pancreas.

Keywords

metformin, magnesium supplementation, insulin, pancreatic duodenal homeobox 1 (pdx-1), and adjunct therapy