Abstract

Gestational diabetes is a public health problem associated with the development of birth defects, which encourage women to consume traditional medicine to improve the sharp rise of blood glucose level and maintain more safe gestation. The present work assess two main aspects, first the diabetic related retarding growth of inner ear and teeth formation and the second the role of one of the common traditional herbs during gestation, combined cinnamonginger extract searching for their safety and actual role in diabetic improvement. Twenty pregnant Wistar rats used and categorized in four groups: control, cinnamon-ginger extract, diabetic and diabetic and cinnamon-ginger mixture extract. Diabetes was induced at the 5th day of gestation using streptozotocin (60 mg/kg body weight citrate buffer pH 4.6 plus 100 mg nicotinamide/kg body weight, single dose). At 14th day of gestation, pregnant rats were euthanized by diethyl ether, sacrificed and their blood was collected and their femoral bone, islet of Langerhans and fetuses were separated. Decalcified femur, islets of Langerhans and head regions fetuses were fixed in 10% phosphate buffered formalin pH 7.4 and processed for histological investigation. 5 μm thick serial histological sections were cut and stained with hematoxylin eosin and immunohistochemically stained with caspase 3. Fetuses of diabetic mothers exhibited delayment growth of inner ear and mandibular tooth formation. The apparent increase of cell death in sensory cells lining the semicircular canal of the inner ear and dentine, enamel, stellate reticulum and dental papilla of teeth were detected post-caspase immunohistochemical staining. These were confirmed by alterations of glucose level, LDL and triglycerides and deterioration of maternal B cells and femoral epiphyseal cartilage. Daily oral administration of cinnamon-ginger watery extract (200 mg/kg body weight) from 5th day of gestation till 14th day improved the biochemical criteria of diabetes plus restoring almost the histological and immunohistochemical picture of both inner ear and tooth formation. These were explained by improvement of B-cells, maternal epiphysis and marked improvement of biochemical criteria of diabetes. The authors finally attributed the improvement of cinnamon-mixture extract to diabetic mother organs and fetal organs to the observed decrease of cell death, improvement of histological picture and amelioration of assessed biochemical markers. All of these may be some bioactive components of the plant extract which showed a potent antioxidant activity.

Keywords: Diabetes; Cinnamon; Ginger; Inner ear; Tooth development