Effect of acarbose on alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase activities in the liver of control and diabetic CBA mice.

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the short-term effects of diet containing 0.1% (m/m) of acarbose in standard laboratory chow on specific liver enzyme activities alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in control and diabetic CBA mice. Diabetes was induced by intravenous injection of alloxan monohydrate in a dose of 75 mg kg(-1) mouse body mass seven days before the treatment with acarbose. There were four groups of CBA mice in the experiment control (C) mice (n = 6) and diabetic (D) mice (n = 8) fed standard chow; control (C/A-100) mice (n = 8) and diabetic (D/A-100) mice (n = 8) fed standard chow containing 0.1% acarbose. Diabetes induced a decrease of the ALT catalytic activities to 69.6% of the control value. A similar level of decreased ALT catalytic activity was detected in the liver of control and diabetic mice fed chow containing 0.1% acarbose. No changes in the specific and total activities of AST in the liver of experimental groups were observed.