Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the beneficial effect of vitamin C supplementation on biochemical parameters, antioxidant status, and zinc status in diabetic rats fed zinc-deficient diet. Forty male albino Wistar rats were divided into 5 groups. The first group was non-diabetic rats. The second and third groups were diabetic given a zinc-adequate diet (ZA); and zinc-deficient diet (ZD) respectively. The forth and the fifth groups received also a zinc adequate diet and zinc-deficient diet with supplementation of vitamin (ZA+VitC and ZD+VitC). Diabetes was induced with alloxan. Body weight and food intake were measured regularly. After four weeks of dietary manipulation, the fasting animals were killed. The results revealed that dietary zinc intake significantly increased glucose, lipids, triglycerides, urea, AST, ALT, liver GST and TBARS levels in ZD rats. In contrast, the levels of zinc, total proteins, ALP, LDH, liver glycogen, GSH, GSH-Px and CAT were decreased. Interestingly, vitamin C seems to be effective in restoring the previous parameters to their normal levels. It can be assumed that vitamin C supplementation acted as an antioxidant, which significantly reduced the severity of zinc-deficiency metabolic perturbations in diabetic rats.