Shantal G Kamat and Ramaballav Roy
Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disorder in human and responsible for different complications and also causes mortality and morbidity. Long chain fatty acids influence inflammation through a variety of mechanisms; many of these are mediated by, or at least associated with, changes in fatty acid composition of cell membranes. Hence the present study was performed to investigate the effect of fish oil extracted from Clarias batrachus which is a good source of PUFA n-3 among freshwater species on alloxan-induced diabetic mice. Material and method: Alloxan was administered at repetitive doses (100 mg/kg b.wt after every 5th day for a period of one month to induce diabetes in mice. Along with alloxan injection, 10% Clarias fish oil was supplemented to diabetic mice for a period of one month. Analysis of basic antioxidant and lipid peroxidation parameters in serum, liver, kidney, heart and pancreatic tissues was carried out. Result: The levels of antioxidant and lipid peroxidation markers were significantly (P<0.05) altered in all the tissues of alloxan-induced diabetic mice. The supplementation of fish oil to diabetic mice showed significant recovery in activity of enzymes SOD, Catalase and in concentration of Vitamin C which is decreased in diabetic control mice. Conclusion: The result of this study indicated fish oil supplementation in diabetic mice helped to reduce the elevated glucose and glycosylated haemoglobin level along with an increase in insulin concentration and helped to recover the altered antioxidant and enzyme activity, which specifies that long term treatment of diabetes with fish oil may help to reduce the diabetes induced tissue damages.