Diabetes mellitus encompasses a group of chronic metabolic conditions associated with cardiovascular complications such as atherosclerosis, cardiomyopathy and nephropathy. In the present study, the authors investigated the beneficial effects of swertiamarin in diabetes and its associated cardiovascular complications in Zucker fa/fa rats. Six male Zucker fa/fa rats in each group were treated for 28 days with swertiamarin (75 mg/kg/day, intraperitoneally) or pioglitazone (30 mg/kg orally). Blood samples were collected and evaluated for several parameters. Elevated serum glucose, triglyceride, nonesterified free-fatty acid and cholesterol levels were found in untreated Zucker fa/fa rats. Serum matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 and MMP-3 levels were also found to be significantly higher in untreated Zucker fa/fa rats. Treatment with swertiamarin significantly (P<0.05) reduced serum glucose, triglyceride, nonesterified free-fatty acid and cholesterol levels, and also reduced serum MMP-9 and MMP-3 levels compared with untreated rats. Swertiamarin also significantly (P<0.05) decreased serum levels of urea compared with untreated Zucker fa/fa rats. Overall, the data suggest that swertiamarin produced beneficial effects with respect to diabetes-induced cardiovascular complications such as atherosclerosis and nephropathy. A swertiamarin-induced decrease in serum MMP-9 and MMP-3 levels is one of the possible mechanisms responsible for improvement of these complications.
Keywords: Atherosclerosis; Diabetes; Matrix metalloproteinase; Swertiamarin.