TITLE:
Combined Therapy of Pioglitazone and Atorvastatin Alleviate Diabetes in Rats More Effectively than That of Mono Therapy
AUTHORS:
Hazrat Ali, A. F. M. Towheedur Rahman, Saiful Islam, Al Mamun, Shaheda Zannah, A. H. M. Khurshid Alam, Aziz Abdur Rahman, Mamunur Rashid
KEYWORDS:
Diabetes with CVD, Pioglitazone, Atorvastatin, Combination Drugs
JOURNAL NAME:
Pharmacology & Pharmacy,
Vol.5 No.5,
May
22,
2014
ABSTRACT: Present research
was designated to investigate the hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic and antioxidant
activity of the combination of pioglitazone and atorvastatin on long-term
alloxan-induced diabetes rats (AIDRs). The experiments were carried out to
determine blood glucose level, lipid profile, free radial scavenging
activities, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase in liver tissue. In
addition, left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy and cardiomyocyte size were also
determined by histological analysis. It was found that in short-term induction,
pioglitazone significantly reduced the blood glucose level without having any
considerable effect on lipid profile and antioxidant enzymes (SOD and catalase)
in rats. On the other hand, atorvastatin significantly reduced total
cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol
(LDL-C) with marked increase in the level of high density lipoprotein
cholesterol (HDL-C) and improved activity of SOD and catalase enzymes. However,
pathological changes of heart and pancreas were not observed after short-term
exposure to alloxan in rats. Long-term diabetes induction resulted in LV
hypertrophy and prominent shrinkage of islets of Langerhans cells. Treatment
with atorvastatin in combination with pioglitazone significantly reduced the LV
hypertrophy, TC, TG and LDL level whereas they noticeably increased HDL
level, DPPH (1,1-Diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl) free radical scavenging activity,
SOD and catalase activity with satisfactory recovery of Langerhans cells. The
result demonstrated that combination therapy was more effective than that of
mono-therapy for preventing diabetes with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in
rats.