Effect of Estrogen and Sodium Chloride on Fasting Blood Sugar and Weight-Gain in Female Diabetic Rats

The effect of estrogen and sodium chloride (NaCl) on fasting blood sugar and weight gain was investigated in female diabetic rats. Changes in serum sodium/potassium ratio on fasting blood sugar (FBS) was also investigated. Female wister rats with an average weight of 150gms were used for this study. 32 healthy rats were used for the control experiments. They were divided into 4 subgroups of 8 rats each which served as control, estrogen treated, NaCl treated, and combination of estrogen and NaCl treated. The remaining 32 rats were made diabetic by intraperitoneal injection of alloxan (100mg/kg body weight) and divided into 4 sub groups as in the healthy rats. FBS, body weights and serum sodium/potassium ratio were determined in all the animals. The study indicates that both estrogen and sodium chloride significantly (P<0.05) lowered FBS in the female diabetic rats. However, the reduction of FBS level in the healthy (non-diabetic) rats - was significant (P<0.001) - though not sustained throughout the study. Treatments of the rats by using a combination of estrogen with sodium chloride showed a significant (P<0.001) reduction of FBS level. However, this reduction was not more than observed by treatment with only estrogen. This means that the substances do not have a cumulative effect in both diabetic and healthy rats. There was however, no significant difference (P>0.05) in serum sodium/potassium ratio in all the subgroups. The result of the investigation also demonstrates that there is significant (P<0.05) retardation of the weight-gain due to estrogen while sodium chloride significantly enhanced weight-gain (P<0.001) in both healthy and diabetic female rats. It was therefore concluded that both estrogen and sodium chloride enhance glucose utilization.