Veterinary Research Forum
Vet Res Forum

Betulinic acid reduces the complications of autoimmune diabetes on the body and kidney through effecting on inflammatory cytokines in C57BL/6 mice

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Yaser Jafari Khataylou 1
Somayyeh Ahmadi Afshar 2
Navideh Mirzakhani 3

1 Department of Pathobiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

2 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

3 Department of Pathobiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Amol University of Special Modern Technologies, Amol, Iran

https://doi.org/10.30466/vrf.2019.101178.2409
Abstract
Autoimmune diabetes is one of the most common metabolic diseases with increasing prevalence in the past decades in which pancreatic Langerhans β cells are destroyed and lead to lack of insulin due to increased blood sugar. One of the consequences of diabetes is glomerular disease of the kidney, also called diabetes nephropathy. Different studies have been carried out on the effects of triterpenoids and their medicinal effects on diabetes mellitus. betulinic acid, a pentacyclic triterpenoid of Terpenes, is found in bushes and trees. Its medical effects are also approved by many studies. In this survey, we studied the effect of betulinic acid on diabetic inbred C57BL/6 male mice. They were randomly divided to three groups. Group A: Consisted of healthy mice which received citrate buffer. Group B: Diabetic mice without any treatment and group C: Treated diabetic mice with betulinic acid. The level of blood insulin level, fasting blood glucose, C-peptide, TNF-α, IFN-γ, and IL-1 cytokines were measured and pathologic studies of the kidney were performed. The results showed that betulinic acid could increase insulin and C-peptide, and decrease fasting blood sugar, kidney lesions and TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-1 in the treated groups. The differences were significant except for IL-1. Betulinic acid through reduction of inflammatory cytokines could have positive effects on inflammatory and autoimmune disease including autoimmune diabetes.

Keywords

Autoimmune diabetes
Betulinic acid
C57BL/6 mice
Cytokines
Kidney
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Veterinary Research Forum
Volume 12, Issue 2
Spring 2021
Pages 203-210

  • Receive Date 06 January 2019
  • Revise Date 26 May 2019
  • Accept Date 08 June 2019

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