Journal of North Khorasan

Introduction:     Diabetes mellitus is an important risk factor for several diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, stroke and renal failure. Guar gum as a soluble dietary fiber can impair glucose uptake. Therefore,

we investigated the effect of guar gum powder on glucose level and lipids of plasma in diabetic rats.

Material  and  methods:  Male Wistar rats with weighting range of 245±35 gr were made diabetic with an intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin(85mg/kg). The animals were divided into four groups including diabetic  group  who  received  %5  of  guar  gum  in  their  diet,  diabetic  group  who  received  2mg/kg glibenclamide, diabetic  control group and normal control group. Experiment period  continued 28 days.

Blood sampling from rats was performed at Oth,ih, 14th,and zs" days after inducing diabetes. And glucose,

triglyceride, LDL-C and HDL-C of serum were evaluated at the aforementioned time intervals.

Results: Our data showed that glucose and HDL-C level of serum of rats that received a diet including 5% guar  gum  did  not  change  significantly  in  comparison  with  diabetic  control  group  during  28  days (p>0.05).But cholesterol, LDL-C (p<0.05) and triglyceride (p<O.OI) significantly decreased versus control

group at 14thand zs" days. In our research glibenc1amide had no effect on glucose, cholesterol and LDL-C,

but it could decrease significantly triglyceride of plasma in diabetic rats (p<0.05).

Discussion: Guar gum probably with increasing viscosity in digestion system is able to decrease uptake of substances, therefore it may have therapeutic effect on decreasing the cholesterol, triglyceride and LDL-C of blood in diabetic rats, but it seems our selective dose had no effect on glucose. Thus, this research has shown that guar gum is effective on controlling blood lipids in diabetic patients.

Key words: Diabetes, streptozotocin, guar gum, rat, glucose, glibenc1amide,serum lipids