EFFECT OF GLUCOSAMINE ON BLOOD GLUCOSE HOMEOSTASIS AND POSSIBILITY OF INTERACTION WITH ANTIDIABETIC DRUGS IN NORMAL AND DIABETIC RATS
Hakim Al-Shahethi*, May Ahmed Abd El Fattah and Helmy Moawad
ABSTRACT
Background: Diabetes mellitus is a common metabolic disorder which affects millions of people worldwide and is associated with a lot of comorbidities; one of them is osteoarthritis which occurred in many elderly persons. Glucosamine is a drug widely used for osteoarthritis. There is concern from previous studies that glucosamine may alter glucose metabolism and induce insulin resistance leading to increasing interaction possibility with antidiabetic drugs and insulin resistance development in normal persons. The present study investigates the effect of glucosamine on blood glucose homeostasis and its interaction with metformin in normal and diabetic rats using doses which used to treat osteoarthritis. Methods: Diabetes was induced in Wistar rats by single intraperitoneal administration of streptozotocin (50 mg/kg).
Normal as well as diabetic rats were divided into groups (n=8) receiving different treatments. Doses of glucosamine (350 mg/kg), metformin (100 mg/kg), and their combination were studied in both normal and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats for a period of 8 weeks. Results: Oral administration of metformin exhibited hypoglycemic effect in diabetic rats and significantly decreased insulin resistance, the contents of total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and triglycerides, whereas HDL-cholesterol and liver glycogen effectively increased. Also, metformin showed an improvement in β-cell function and decreased total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol in normal rats. In the other hand, oral administration of glucosamine did not show any significant effect on all measured parameters in normal and diabetic rats except slight significant reduction on total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol in diabetic rats. The combination of metformin with glucosamine did not produce any change in all measured parameters as compared to metformin. Conclusion: No interaction was shown between glucosamine and metformin. Moreover, glucosamine did not cause or worsen insulin resistance in normal and diabetic rats respectively.
Keywords: diabetes mellitus, glucosamine, metformin, interaction, osteoarthritis.
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