Journal of

Introdution: Diabetes is the most common endocrine disorder characterized by hyperglycemia. Increasing the oxidative stress and changing the amount of antioxidants play important roles in pathogenesis of diabetes. Nowadays to control diabetes and its complications, the use of herbal drugs is considered widely. In this study, we investigated the effect of oleuropein on antioxidant enzymes activity of heart tissue in Streptozotocin induced diabetic male rats.
Methods: In this study, 30 adult male Wistar rats with a weight range of 190±30 gr were randomly divided into 3 groups(n=10 in each group): 1) control group or intact rats, 2) diabetic rats, and 3) treatment group, which received 60 mg/kg oleuropein for 30 days by gastric gavage. Diabetes was induced by injection of streptozotocin (60 mg/kg) intraperitoneally. At the end of the treatment, serum concentrations of blood glucose and heart tissue antioxidant enzymes activity were determined. The obtained data were analyzed using  SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL; Version 18, statistical method of one way variance analysis and post hoc-Duncan test .
Results: The results showed that serum concentration of glucose decrease significantly in treatment group compared with the diabetic group (p=0.000). Also, TAC, SOD and GPX activity increased significantly in the treatment group compared with the diabetic group (p=0.000).
Conclusion: This study showed that oleuropein can prevent blood glucose increasing and reinforce antioxidant system of cardiac tissue in diabetic rats.