الفهرس 
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Abstract
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is an epidemic disease that is considered a health problem around the world. The most common defect associated with diabetes is an inability to secrete insulin in response to elevated blood glucose levels or an inability of the tissues to appropriately respond to endogenous insulin. Testicular dysfunction, impotence, decreased fertility potential and retrograde ejaculations, erectile dysfunction and poor semen quality are conditions that have been described in diabetic males.
The treatments of DM with natural products and plant constituents were found by previous publications to be safer than conventional chemical drugs that may have many side effects.
Therefore, this study aimed to assess the efficacy of bee pollen and/or palm pollen suspensions on the glycemic state, insulin secretory response, sexual dysfunction and liver, kidney and heart dysfunction as well as antioxidant defense system in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats.
The present study was carried out on 30 healthy adult male rats of Wistar strain. The weight range was from 150 – 170 g. They were housed under controlled conditions (25 ± 1°C constant temperature, 55% relative humidity, 12 hours lighting cycle), kept under laboratory conditions 2 weeks prior to experiment for acclimatization and received standard diet and water ad libitum during the study period. All animal procedures and the experimental protocols were approved by the Local Experimental Animal Ethics Committee.
DM was induced by intraperitoneal injection of 40 mg STZ/kg body weight (b. w.) to overnight-fasted Wistar rats.
After induction of DM, animals were allocated into five groups (6 rats for each) as follows:
group I: It consists of healthy rats that receive the equivalent volume of vehicle (distilled water) by oral gavage for 4 weeks (Normal group);
group II: It contains diabetic rats that receive the equivalent volume of vehicle (distilled water) daily by oral gavage for 4 weeks (Diabetic control group);
group III: It consists of diabetic rats that were treated with aqueous suspension of bee (Apis melliferal) pollen (100 mg/kg b.w./day) by oral gavage for 4 weeks.
group IV: It contains diabetic rats that were treated with the aqueous suspension of palm (Phoenix dactylifera) pollen (100 mg/kg b.w./day) by oral gavage for 4 weeks.
group V: It consists of diabetic rats that were treated with both aqueous suspensions of bee pollen and palm pollen with the same doses and route of administration daily by oral gavage for 4 weeks.
At the end of experiments (4 weeks), fasting and post-prandial blood glucose concentrations were measured as well as body weight gain was detected. The rats were anaesthetized and sacrificed.
The diabetic rats exhibited a significant decrease in body weight gain, testis weight and pancreas weight. The treatment of diabetic rats with bee pollen and palm pollen produced a significant increase of the lowered body weight and testis and pancreas weights.
The treatments of diabetic rats with bee pollen and/or palm pollen suspensions induced a detectable decrease in the elevated fasting and post-prandial glucose concentrations as compared to diabetic control rats as well as they also induced an increase in the serum insulin level and decreased serum creatinine level and ALT, AST, CK-MB and LDH activities as compared to diabetic control rats.
Serum testosterone, FSH and LH levels were significantly decreased in STZ-induced diabetic rats. The treatment of diabetic rats with bee pollen and palm pollen suspensions induced a significant increase in testosterone and LH levels as compared to diabetic control rats. It was obvious that the administration of palm pollen with bee pollen suspensions have the most ameliorating effect against FSH decrease.
The lowered testis GST activity was significantly increased only as a result of bee pollen treatment while testis GPx and SOD activities were significantly increased as a result of bee pollen and/or palm pollen suspensions.
Testis NO had detectably increased in diabetic rats as compared to normal control. The treatment of diabetic rats with bee pollen and/or palm pollen suspensions induced a significant increase as compared to the corresponding diabetic control. On the other hand, the diabetic rats exhibited a significant decrease in testis GSH content as compared to control, while lipid peroxidation was significantly increased. The reduced glutathione levels were detectably increased while lipid peroxidation was significantly decreased as a result of different treatments of diabetic rats.
Moreover, the treatments of diabetic rats with bee pollen and/or palm pollen suspensions induced a significant increase in sperm count, motility% and viability% while they produced a decrease in abnormal sperm %.
Additionally, the treatment of diabetic rats with bee pollen and/or palm pollen suspensions induced a marked improvement in the islets cells. The treatment also improved the testis architecture and increased the spermatogenic cells and the number of sperms.
Conclusion
The bee pollen and palm pollen have preventive potential against liver, kidney, heart and testis dysfunctions. These preventive and ameliorative actions may be mediated via improving the glycemic state, insulin secretory response and antioxidant defense system. However, further studies are required to assess the efficiency and safety of bee pollen and palm pollen in diabetic human beings.