Anti-metabolic syndrome and immunostimulant activities of Egyptian fenugreek seeds in diabetic/obese and immunosuppressive rat models

Abstract

Preliminary trials have suggested possible hypoglycaemic, hypolipidaemic and immunomodulatory properties of the fenugreek plant. Here, we evaluated and compared the efficacy of Egyptian fenugreek seed powder (FSP, 0·5 and 1·0 g/kg body weight) in alleviating the experimentally induced metabolic syndrome (in type 1 diabetic and obese rat models) and experimentally induced immunosuppression and delay in burn-healing (in cyclophosphamide (CP)-treated rats). FSP significantly alleviated (P,0·05-0·001) most signs of the metabolic syndrome resulting from experimentally induced type 1 diabetes and obesity by 40-76 and 56-78 %, respectively, including hyperglycaemia, hyperlipidaemia, elevation in atherogenic indices, impairment of liver functions, severe changes in body weight and oxidative stress. Besides, FSP (especially the high dose) completely modulated the immunosuppressive activity of CP including leucopenia (resulting from neutropenia and lymphopenia), decrease in weights and cellularity of lymphoid organs, serum g-globulin level, delayed type of hypersensitivity response and delay in the skin-burning healing process. FSP decreased the immunosuppressive activity of CP by 57-108 %. These beneficial effects of FSP were dose dependent in most cases, and FSP doses used here were considered safe in general. FSP was more efficient in alleviating the signs of the metabolic syndrome in the obese animals (over 9 %) than in the type 1 diabetic animals. Moreover, the immunostimulant activity of fenugreek seeds exceeded their anti-metabolic syndrome activity by 15 -24 %. In conclusion, fenugreek seeds may be useful not only as a dietary adjunct for the control of the metabolic syndrome in diabetic/obese patients, but also as an immunostimulant in immunocompromised patients such as those under chemotherapeutic interventions.

Preventive and curative effect of Trigonella foenum-graecum L. seeds in C57BL/6J models of type 2 diabetes induced by high-fat diet

“…Previous studies in alloxan or streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats, rabbits and normal mice or glucose-infused rats found similar effects on plasma glucose (Ajabnoor and Tilmisany, 1988;Ali et al, 1995;Khosla et al, 1995;Abdel-Barry et al, 1997;Zia et al, 2001;Vats et al, 2002;Vijayakumar et al, 2005;Gad et al, 2006;Hannan et al, 2007;Xue et al, 2007;Mowla et al, 2009;Moorthy et al, 2010a, b;Yadav et al, 2010;Ramadan et al, 2011).…”

Dose-dependent effects, safety and tolerability of fenugreek in diet-induced metabolic disorders in rats

“…Saponins, such as diosgenin contained in fenugreek, form large micells from bile acid and saponin molecules in the small intestine, and these micelles inhibit the cholesterol absorption by directly excreting cholesterol in feces [15,16]. Diosgenin also reduces the triglyceride content and mRNA expression levels of lipogenic genes (FAS, SCD-1 and ACC) and suppresses LXRα transactivation.…”

Beneficial effects of legumes on parameters of the metabolic syndrome: a systematic review of trials in animal models

“…In a manner similar to glucose metabolism, lipid parameters seem to be positively influenced by the administration of all sixteen different legumes that have been included in this review. Among the most widely mentioned beneficial improvements, the reduction of different lipid fractions in plasma, such as total-, LDL-, HDL-cholesterol and TAG (20,22,(28)(29)(30)(31)34,36,38,46,48,(54)(55)(56)58,61) , hepatic TAG and phospholipid content (17,19,60) , or both of them (18,24,(40)(41)(42)(43)45,52,61) , is reported. Other improvements associated with lipid metabolism and body composition are the decrease of body fat mass and white adipose tissue by Glycine max (17,25) , as well as the reduction of hepatic steatosis induced by this same legume (18) .…”

“…Specifically, Srichamroen et al (35) demonstrated that galactomannan of fenugreek reveals its function at the intestinal level by reducing the in vitro uptake of glucose in both jejunum and ileal segments. Moreover, the hypolipidaemic properties of fenugreek are clearly demonstrated by lower levels of lipid fractions in blood (28)(29)(30)(31)34) and TAG in epidydimal adipose tissue (34) , the weight of the latter being significantly lower after combining high-fat diets with powder of fenugreek seeds (28) . Liver function markers such as alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST) and alkaline phosphatase activities (29,31) , concentration of TBARS, as well as the activities of antioxidant enzymes such as catalase and superoxide dismutase (25) , decreased because of the administration of this legume.…”