Assessment of the Effects of Morus mesozygia Linn. Stapf., Leaf Extracts on the Liver of Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Wistar Rats

Aim: To assess the effect of Morus mesozygia Linn. Stapf., leaf extracts on the liver of Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Wistar Rats.

Study Design: Case-controlled experimental study.

Place and Duration of Study: Biochemistry Research Laboratory, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, between June 2018-April 2019.

Methodology: A total of 65 male albino rats that weighed between 150g to 200g were used for this research study. Three different extracted solvents; aqueous, ethanolic and methanolic leaves extracts were administered to different groups of the rats. The male albino rats for this study were induced with a single dose of 40mg/kg b.wt, intraperitoneally of streptozotocin in 0.1M of citrate buffer, pH 4.5. The diabetic male rats were those whose fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels were from 250 mg/dl or 13 mmol/L and above. The rats were divided into different experimental groups based on the treatment regimen; administration of the herb was done orally after intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin. The rats were sacrificed after 30 days and blood samples were collected for the estimation of liver function parameters using spectrophotometric method. Histological analysis was done and the slides were stained using H & E staining technique. Graph pad prism (version 5.01) was used for statistical analysis and p values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Results: The results showed that intraperitoneal induction of diabetes with streptozotocin caused a significant increase (p<.05) in the activity of AST, ALT and ALP (5.92 ± 0.49 to 11.88 ± 1.2 U/L), (2.69 ± 0.43 to 4.43 ± 0.53 U/L) and (22.6 ± 4.78 to 36.04 ± 2.68 U/L) respectively. However, treatment with 200 and 400mg/kg of aqueous, methanolic and ethanolic extracts of Morus mesozygia Linn. Stapf leaves caused a significant reduction in the activity of these enzymes.

Conclusion: Morus mesozygia Linn. Stapf leaves extracts showed strong hepatoprotective effect, particularly the methanolic and ethanolic extracts. Further studies to unravel the molecular mechanism involved is hereby recommended.