The Metabolic Impact of Vitamin D on the Context of Metabolic Syndrome

Abstract

Vitamin D deficiency is one of the major affecting factors on metabolic syndrome, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. So we aimed in our study to show the anti-diabetic effects of vitamin D on type 2 diabetic rats. Therefore, 45 rats were divided into three groups (15 rats per each group). The first group served as a control and fed on a standard chow diet while the other two groups served as diabetic groups as they fed on high fructose, high fat, and high sucrose diet and for 12 weeks then they injected with intraperitoneal single dose (45 mg/kg b.wt) of STZ dissolved in cold 0.01 M citrate buffer (pH 4.5) to develop type 2 diabetes mellitus. After one week of injection the third diabetic group was treated for 4 weeks with two intramuscular (20,000 IU/Kg) of vitamin D dissolved in sesame oil. The obtained results demonstrated that administration of vitamin D could improve serum glucose and insulin levels with an increase in serum calcitonin and calcium in correlation with the decrease in parathyroid hormone, phosphorus and lipids levels in the presence of significant upregulation of gene expression in liver (PPARα, GLP-1, and IGF-1) and in adipose tissue (Ptch, Smo, Gli-1, and hhip). In conclusion, vitamin D administration can improve insulin resistance by improving blood glucose and insulin levels.