And Inulin: Therapeutic Agents to Enhance Cardiac Ob Receptor Expression and Suppress Cardiac Apoptosis in Type 2 Diabetic Rats.

Background: T2DM may cause increased levels of oxidative stress and cardiac apoptosis through elevated blood glucose. The present study investigated the effects of (. ) as a probiotic strain and inulin as a prebiotic supplement on cardiac oxidative stress and apoptotic markers in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) rats.

Methods: A high-fat diet and a low dose of streptozotocin were used to induce type 2 diabetes. The rats were divided into six groups which were supplemented with . , inulin, or their combination for 8 weeks.

Results: The results showed improved activity of cardiac antioxidant parameters including total antioxidant capacity (TAC), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) ( < 0.001, < 0.01, and < 0.01, respectively) and decreased level of cardiac malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration ( < 0.05). These changes were accompanied with increased protein expression of cardiac obesity receptor (Ob-R) ( = 0.05) and reduced apoptotic markers such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-), Fas ligand (FasL), and caspase proteins ( < 0.001, = 0.003, and < 0.01, respectively) in T2DM rats after concurrent . and inulin supplementation. Moreover, a remarkable correlation of cardiac Ob-R and oxidative stress parameters with cardiac apoptotic markers was observed ( < 0.01).

Conclusion: The concurrent use of . and inulin seems to be beneficial, as they can lead to decreased heart complications of T2DM via reducing cardiac apoptotic markers.