Study On The Effects Of Catalpol And The Mechanism In Experimental Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy.

Objective To investigate the effects of catalpol and the mechanism in diabetic rats with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN).Methods Male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into three groups: normal control (NC, n=6), diabetic control (DC, n=7) and diabetes intervention with catalpol (CI, n=7) group. The diabetic rats were induced by the intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (STZ). The rats of CI group were interfered with catalpol for 2 weeks at the 8th week. All rats accepted the electrophysiological examinations of sciatic nerve at the 8th and the 10th week. Before sacrificed, blood was harvested from heart for measuring glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level. Then L5 dorsal root ganglion (DRG) and sciatic nerves were dissected free. Ultrastructure was examined by electron microscope. The changes of IGF-Ⅰand Akt were investigated by immunohistochemistry and evaluated semiquantitatively on the basis of the intensity of positive staining by Image-pro-plus auto picture analysis system.Results1. Mean weights (g) for DC group and CI group were 239.46±39.66 and 245.05±32.10g respectively, and were significantly (P < 0.001) lower than those of NC group (351.67±62.53). Blood glucose values (mmol/L) of DC group and CI group were 23.33±4.96 and 23.74±5.05 mmol/l respectively, and were significantly (P < 0.001) higher than the values of NC group (5.70±1.25). At the 10th week, HbA1c values (%) in DC group and CI group were 5.80±0.76 and 6.22±0.86, significantly (P < 0.001) higher than NC group (2.25±0.07). 2. At the 8th week, motor nerve conduction velocity (MNCV, m/s) of DC group and CI group were 31.70...