Objective: This study initiated to evaluate the pathologic changes of pancreas, liver and kidney in diabetes rats treated with T. polium.Methods: In an experimental study, the crude extract of T. polium was administered orally to a group of streptozotocin (STZ) diabetic rats for 6 consecutive weeks. The control healthy rats and the control diabetic rats received distilled water. Tissue samples were routinely processed and stained with H&E and PAS.Results: Significant decrease in blood glucose, increase in serum alkaline phosphatase and insulin secretion were observed in treated diabetic rats. Histopathologic study of diabetic rats revealed reduction in the number of pancreatic islets as well as their number of b-cells and INSULITIS (inflammation of pancreatic islets) with lymphocytes infiltration. Regeneration of pancreatic islets and b-cells, along with a reduction in the number of infiltrated lymphocytes, hepatitis with hypertrophy and hyperplasia of Kupffer's cells and infiltration and sequestration of polymorphonuclears and tubulointerstitial nephritis with focal necrosis were present in plant extract-treated diabetic rats.Conclusions: The plant extract seems to be capable of regenerating the islets of langerhans in the treated rats compared to the untreated diabetic rats. Severe changes due to the plant extract in organs such as liver and kidney could explain increase of alkaline phosphatase activity. Further works are required to explore exactly the mechanisms of islet regeneration by the plant extract its side effects.

Objectives: This study investigates the effects of hydro-alcoholic extract of Prangos ferulacea (L.) Lindle (P.f) on rats' pancreas structure changes and diabetic treatment after streptozotocin injection.Materials and Methods: In this research forty male Wistar rats with body weights of 100±20 gram, were randomly divided into 5 groups with 8 rats per each group. Diabetes was induced in rats by streptozotocin at a dose of 75 mg/kg body weight (B.W) injected intraperitoneally. Root and leaves with stems hydroalcoholic extract of P.f at a dose of 100 mg/kg B.W have been injected orally in diabetic rats, daily for a month.Results: Significant decrease in blood glucose, WBC and HbA1c and increase in body weight were observed in treated diabetic rats. Histopathologic results of diabetic rats revealed reduction in number of pancreatic islets as well as their numberof b-cells and INSULITIS with lymphocytes infiltration.Regenerationof pancreatic islets and b-cells, along with a reduction in the number of infiltrated lymphocytes were present in plant extract –treated diabetic rats.Conclusion: The roots´ hydro-alcoholic extract of P.f seems to be capable to regenerate the islets of Langerhans in the treated rats in comparison with the untreated diabetic rats. This property can be due to some components of the plant that can increase insulin secretion.

Background: Type 1 diabetes (T1DM) is an organ specific auto-immune disease, which is resulted by selective destruction of β islet cells. INSULITIS as the initial event prior to T1DM development is featured mainly by lymphocytic infiltration, that may recede frequently leading to healthy state (benign INSULITIS). Among the issues that govern which of these outcome lie ahead in INSULITIS are the genetic background of the host and also the immunological circumstances in β islets micro-environment. Methods: As a "case-control association study" the impact of a polymorphism within TNF- α gene at position -308*G/A on genetic susceptibility to T1DM is analyzed in a British-Caucasian population (248 cases and 118 healthy controls). Results: The distribution of genotype/allele frequencies between patients and controls did not reflect significant differences (p= NS). Conclusion: Since the crucial role of TNF-α in development of T1DM is well established, our data may confer that the examined polymorphic marker does not have functional effects on TNF-α gene expression, influencing the local or systemic level of this pro-inflammatory cytokine. However, in addition to addressing the uncertainties in "genotype-phenoype" correlations in complex diseases (i.e. T1DM), the negative results of our study also may instead draw attention to the potential impacts of post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms relative to gene structural-based regulatory systems.

The BioBreeding-Diabetes Prone (BB-DP) rat spontaneously develops an autoimmune diabetic syndrome that is dependent on the RT1u Major Histocompatibility Complex (MBC) haplotype and homozygosity for an allele at the Lymphopenia (Lyp) locus. Lyp mutation is responsible for a peripheral T-lymphopenia. There are other genetic loci contributing to diabetes susceptibility in this strain. BB rats carrying wildtype Lyp alleles are not lymphopenic and are resistant to spontaneous diabetes (Diabetes Resistant [DR]). Our study shows that thymectomy and exposure to one sublethal dose of g-irradiation (TX-R) at 4 weeks of age result in the rapid development of INSULITIS followed by diabetes in 100% of DR rats. Administration of CD45RC-CD4+ TCRab+ T cells from unmanipulated syngeneic donors immediately after irradiation prevents the disease. Splenic T cells from TX-R induced diabetic animals adoptively transfer type 1 diabetes to T-deficient recipients. WAG, WF and LEW strains are resistant to TX-R induced INSULITIS/ diabetes. This novel model of TX -R induced diabetes in BB-DR rats can be used to identify environmental and cellular factors that are responsible for the initiation of antipancreatic autoimmunity.

Background and purpose: Type I diabetes is an autoimmune disease. Nowadays, there is increasing interest in natural products for the treatment of diabetes. This study was done to investigate the effect of hydroalcholic extract of Cynodon dactylon on the biochemical aspects and histopahtological changes of pancreas in experimental autoimmune diabetes in C57bl/6 mice.Materials and methods: After stabilization of diabetes, mice were allocated in three therapeutic groups (n=10 per group) and orally treated with hydroalcholic extract of C. dactylon (100, 200 and 400 mg/Kg) for two constitutive weeks. The mice were euthanized at day 14 post streptozotocin administration and pancreases were collected and applied for histopathology. Furthermore, the levels of serum fasting blood sugar, triglyceride and cholesterol level were measured in 7 and 14 days after final streptozotocin dose. Nonparametric data (histopathological scores) were compared by Mann-Whitney U-test. Other parametric data were analyzed using the one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s post-hoc test.Results: The results indicated a significant decrease in the levels of fasting blood glucose, triglyceride and cholesterol compared to control group. Moreover, treatment with C. dactylon significantly decreased the levels of leukocyte infiltration in the treatment group compared to diabetes mice without treatment.Conclusion: It seems that hydroalcholic extract C. dactylon may have a therapeutic effect against destruction of &betaeta cells and INSULITIS in the animal model of type I diabetes. Thus, it may be a promising strategy to control this disease in human.

Background: A high-fat diet causes hyperinsulinemia and increases insulin resistance in the body. On the other hand, the oxidative stress caused by hyperglycemia can lead to the exacerbation of hyperglycemia and increase the complications of diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases are one of the most important complications of diabetes mellitus. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 4 weeks of aerobic training on catalase enzyme activity in the left ventricle and insulin resistance index in male rats treated with streptozotocin and exposed to a high-fat diet. Methods: In this experimental study, 19 male wistar rats, with an average age of 8-12 weeks and a weight of 200-250 grams, were divided into 3 groups: diabetic control (CD 8), training diabetes (TD 8) and healthy control (C 3). The exercise program included 4 weeks of aerobic exercise with an average of 60 to 75 Vo2max in an increasing manner. Before and 48 hours after the last training session, blood was taken and left ventricular tissue samples were extracted to check the HOMA-IR index and catalase activity by ELISA method. To compare the study groups, one-way analysis of variance and Scheffe's post hoc test were used in SPSS software (p≥, 0. 05). Results: The results showed that the induction of diabetes with STZ along with a high-fat diet causes a significant decrease in catalase enzyme (P=0. 001) and a significant increase in HOMA-IR index, fasting glucose and Li index (P=0. 001) in rats. However, doing 4 weeks of aerobic training caused a significant increase in catalase enzyme activity (P=0. 001) and a decrease in HOMA-IR index, glucose and Li index (P=0. 001). Conclusion: Aerobic exercise with moderate intensity can be used as an effective non-pharmacological method in the treatment of diabetic cardiomyopathy by increasing catalase activity and reducing resistance to INSULITIS in diabetes.