Protective Effect of Terminalia muelleri Extract on Brain of Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetes in Albino Rats

Diabetic neuropathy is one of the complications of diabetes. This study investigated the possibility of reducing neuropathy of STZ-induced diabetic rats by Terminalia muelleri extract (TE) and comparing the effect of the extract with the therapeutic effect of pioglitazone (PG) drug. The experimental animals were divided into non-diabetic (normal control), STZ-induced diabetic (diabetic control), TE-treated non-diabetic (200 mg/kg b.wt) (TE-group) TE-treated diabetic (200 mg/kg b.wt) (TE-STZ-group), and pioglitazone-treated diabetic (1.58 mg /kg b.wt) (PG-STZ-group). All treatments were administered orally by oral gavage once daily throughout the 4 weeks of the treatment period. In this study: malonaldehyde, nitric oxide, reduced glutathione and glutathione disulfide were examined as oxidative stress marker in the brain tissue of the experimental rats. The results indicated high oxidative stress in STZ-diabetic groups and reduced oxidative stress of groups treated with TE. The results of norepinephrine, dopamine, gammaamino- butyric acid, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, and Casps-3 also demonstrated the possibility of using TE to attenuate the effects of neuropathy in experimental rats comparable to PG use. This indicated that the TE is promising alternative to chemical treatment with PG drug. This indicated that TE is promising alternative to chemical treatment with PG drug.