Journal of Pharmaceutical Research International

Objective: The objective of this study is to compare the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) level and lipid peroxidation product malondialdehyde (MDA) in ethanol treated non diabetic and diabetic rats.  

Methods: A total of 24 male Wistar albino rats were grouped as control (n=6), diabetic control (n=6), ethanol treated control (n=6) and ethanol treated test (n=6) groups. Total duration of this experiment was 30 days. Diabetes mellitus was induced in rats by a single intraperitoneal dose of streptozotocin at 40 mg/kg dissolved in 0.1 M cold citrate buffer.  After the confirmation of diabetes in streptozotocin administered rat groups, on the 10^th day of the experiment healthy control and diabetic control groups were orally treated with (1.0 mL/Kg body weight) drinking water while diabetic and non-diabetic ethanol control rat groups were orally treated with (1.0 mL/Kg body weight) 6.0% ethanol. On the 20^th day, treatment was stopped and restarted on 25^th day of the experiment.

Results: At the end of the experiment, the body weight of the healthy rat groups gradually increased (251±20.77g) when compared with diabetic groups (162±07.48 g for diabetic control and 176±24.78 g for ethanol treated diabetic groups). The ethanol treated diabetic groups showed a significantly reduced blood glucose level (P < 0.01) than the diabetic control groups. The moderate amount of ethanol treated diabetic rats showed normal SOD (3.928 Unit mg/min) and decreased MDA (ethanol treated diabetic rats showed 1.0156 nmol/mg protein) than the diabetic rats (1.7638 nmol/mg protein).  

Conclusion: This study indicates that daily low consumption of alcohol may reduce the risk of oxidative stress and try to normalize the antioxidant status in diabetes rats.