Abstract

Quercetin (QR) is a strong antioxidant and long-term treatment for STZ-diabetic animals and it has been shown to reduce oxidative stress. Antioxidants have essential effect on liver diseases. Enhanced oxidative stress and changes in antioxidant capacity are considered to play an important role in the pathogenesis of chronic diabetes mellitus. Wistar male rat (n = 40) were allocated into three groups, control group (n = 10) and (QR) groups that received 15 mg/kg, (n = 10) and diabetic group that received 55 mg/kg streptozotocin (STZ) (n = 20) which was subdivided to two groups of 10; STZ group and treatment group. Treatment group received 55 mg/kg STZ plus 15 mg/kg QR, daily for 4 weeks, respectively; however, the control group just received an equal volume of distilled water daily. Diabetes was induced by a single injection of STZ (55 mg/kg). Animals were kept in standard condition. In 28 day after inducing diabetic, serums were collected for total antioxidant capacity (TAC), malondialdehyde concentration (MDA) and oxidized low density lipoprotein (Ox-LDL) levels and liver tissues of rat in whole groups were removed then prepared for apoptosis analysis by Tunel method. TAC was significantly decreased in diabetics group (P<0.05) in comparison to control and (QR) groups, MDA and Ox-LDL were significantly increased in diabetics groups (P<0.05). Conclusively, in our study 15 mg/kg QR, has significant preventive the effect on liver cells damages so it seems that using it can be effective for treatment in diabetic rat.

Key words: Antioxidant, cell injury, diabetes.