Investigation of effects of neurotrophic factors on painful diabetic neuropathy: an experimental study

Year 2019, Volume: 5 Issue: 4, 641 - 648, 04.07.2019

Faruk Kılınç , Ramis Çolak , Mete Özcan Ahmet Ayar

https://doi.org/10.18621/eurj.414105

Abstract

Objective: We have studied the effects of neurotrophin-4 (NT-4)
different doses on the pain levels of streptozocin-induced diabetic rats.

Methods: Thirty-five 3-week-old male rats were used. After
induction of diabetes in rats with streptozocin (nearly 4 weeks); diabetic
animals were divided into 4 groups. The first group; healthy control group (n =
15 ), the second group; diabetic control group ( n = 10 ), the third group; low
dose (0.3 mg/ kg ) recombinant human NT-4 was applied ( n = 4 ) and the fourth
group; high dose recombinant human NT-4 was applied (n = 6).

Results: In the low-dose NT-4 group, the pain threshold values
did not differ from the diabetic control and healthy control groups. In the
high dose NT-4 group, a rise was observed in the pain threshold values of hot
plate in comparison with the healthy control group, diabetic control group and
low dose applied group and this rise reached at the level of statistical
significance (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Neurotrophic factors (neurotrophin-4) have been shown
to be effective on painful diabetic neuropathy in streptozocin-induced diabetic
rats. However, there is a need for larger-scale and longer-term studies for
clinical use. 

Keywords

Diabetic neuropathy, hot plate, neurotrophin-4, streptozocin

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