Biochemical and Ultrastructural Basis of the Antidiabetic Activity of Cassia fistula

Ramananda Ghosh Tarafdar, Salil Varshney, Sushmita Nath, Prakash Roy Choudhury, Sudip Choudhury, Anil N Gaikwad, Anupam Das Talukdar and Manabendra Dutta Choudhury

Department of Life Science and Bioinformatics, Assam University, Silchar - 788 011, India

Pharmacology Division, CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow 226 031, India

Department of Chemistry, Assam University, Silchar - 788 011, India

Corresponding author email: drmdc@bioinfoaus ac.in

[Received: 13 February 2016]

Abstract: We evaluated antidiabetic efficacy of Cassia fistula stem bark extract (RGI) in 3T3-LI cell line and streptozotocin (STZ) induced Swiss albino mice model. MTT and acute oral toxicity assays used to determined toxicity. Effect of RGI in 3T3-LI cell adipogenesis, glucose uptake, and pleiotropic transcriptional activators were determined in vitro antidiabetic efficacy, which was further established in vivo by using STZ induced diabetic mice model, serum biochemical analyses and the activity of RGI in pancreatic cells. RGI showed significant effect in 3T3-LI adipogenesis, lipid accumulation, glucose uptake by differentiated adipocytes, and pleiotropic transcriptional activators- C/EBPa, PPARY, ap2, LPL and Adiopo-Q. RGI affected STZ induced diabetes mice's body weight, plasma glucose level, serum lipid profile and hepatic enzyme levels as antidiabetic agent. It rejuvenated the pancreatic cell damage caused due to diabetes and restored the insulin secretory granule regeneration. The obtained results suggest RGI's mechanistic passage leading to its antidiabetic efficacy.

Keywords: Cassia fistula L, antidiebtic activity, Type 2 diabetes.