Journal of
Medicinal Plants Research

  • Abbreviation: J. Med. Plants Res.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1996-0875
  • DOI: 10.5897/JMPR
  • Start Year: 2007
  • Published Articles: 3835

Full Length Research Paper

Vaccinium myrtillus improves liver mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation of diabetic Goto-Kakizaki rats

Fernanda M. Ferreira1*, Francisco P. Peixoto2, Elsa Nunes3, Cristina Sena3, Raquel Seiça3 and Maria Sancha Santos4
1Department of Environmental Sciences (CERNAS), Agricultural College of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal. 2Chemistry Department (CECAV) University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal. 3Department of Physiology and Institute of Biomedical Research in Light and Image, Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Portugal. 4Department of Zoology, Center for Neurosciences and Cell Biology of Coimbra, University of Coimbra, Portugal.
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 16 March 2010
  •  Published: 18 April 2010

Abstract

Despite medicinal plants increasing use in diabetes mellitus therapy, recurrently, however, beneficial effects are mainly empirical. In this study, the effects of decoctions of Vaccinium myrtillus L. (bilberry) leaves were investigated on GK rats, a type 2 diabetes mellitus animal model. The possible toxic effects of V. myrtillus over mitochondrial respiratory activity indexes were evaluated. Our results show that V. myrtillus leaf decoctions presented significant benefits on glycaemic control. Moreover, GK rats treated during four weeks with V. myrtillusdecoction presented an improvement of mitochondrial respiratory parameters evaluated (RCR and FCCP stimulated respiration) which could be explained due to mitochondrial biogenesis improvement by quercetins present in V. myrtillusleaves.

 

Key words: Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rats, type 2 diabetes mellitus, V. mytillus L., phytotherapy, oxidative phosphorylation, toxicology.

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This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

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