Protective Effect of Aspirin in Relation to IGF-1 in Streptozotocin Induced Type-II Diabetic Rats

background:The present study aimed at investigating the protective effects of aspirin in relation to insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in streptozotocin (STZ) induced type-2 diabetic rats.
Materials and Methods: Rat pups were divided into four groups; on the 5th day of their age, group-I pups received citrate buffer solution and served as the normal group; group-II, treated on-ly with streptozotocin (80 mg/kg, i.p), served as the diabetic group; groups-III & IV, treated with aspirin (10 mg/kg/day, p.o) for one month (5-35 days) and two months (5-65 days) after streptozo-tocin, served as the treated groups. On the 35th and 65th days, blood samples were collected from all animals and fasting blood sugar, fasting insu-lin, IGF-1, insulin resistance and insulin sensi-tivity levels were estimated.
Results: Blood samples taken on the 35th & 65th days, from pups treated with streptozotocin per se and in combination with aspirin for one and two months showed significantly increased body weight, fasting blood glucose and insulin resis-tance levels and significantly lowered fasting in-sulin and insulin sensitivity levels, when com-pared to the normal control pups respectively. Pups treated with aspirin for one month had significantly raised IGF-1 levels, whereas those with two month treatments had significantly lo-wered IGF-1 levels when compared to the nor-mal pups (p <0.0001).
Conclusions: The study indicates that aspirin pretreatment seems to protect the pancreas from damage caused by STZ and maintains glucose levels in diabetic rats, while increasing insulin sensitivity and reducing insulin resistance, which may indicate an involvement of an insulin like pathway, particularly IGF-1.