Urea, creatinine and uric acid were assayed in plasma using standard kits supplied from Agappe Diagnostics Ltd., Kerala, India and the results expressed as mg/dl.
3.4.1 Effect of Kombucha on urea, creatinine and uric acid in control and experimental rats
As shown in Table 3.4.1, STZ induced diabetic hyperglycemia causes the significant elevation of plasma levels of urea, uric acid and creatinine when compared with the normal group, while after treatment of Kombucha to the diabetic rats the levels of urea, uric acid and creatinine significantly reduced. This indicates that treatment with Kombucha normalized the urea, uric acid and creatinine …show more content…
Kombucha treatment to diabetic rats caused a remarkable improvement of biochemical alterations and noticeable elevation in the plasma total protein and albumin levels. Kombucha is rich in flavonoids. These improvements may be due to the synergistic action of flavonoids (Modi et al., 2006; Latha et al., 2004; Mohamed et al., 2000). It has been also established that insulin stimulates the protein synthesis (Almdal and Vilstrup, 1988), thereby enhancing total protein concentration. Accordingly, in our previous investigation in this chapter, Kombucha enhanced insulin secretion. Green tea catechins are reported to have improved kidney functions (Sabu et al., 2002). Thus, Kombucha might exert a similar mechanism in attenuating renal injuries. Also, reversal of kidney functions to near normal could be due to improved glycaemic control and decreased metabolic disturbances of protein and nucleic acid metabolism. Furthermore, the recovery of renal function upon treatment of Kombucha might be due to the enhanced ability of Kombucha which contains acetic acid and glucuronic acid which is essential for detoxification and removal of these waste products from the blood (Dutton, 1980; Ibrahim, …show more content…
The increased concentration of these parameters may possibly be due to elevated activities of xanthine oxidase, lipid peroxidation, and increased triacylglycerol and cholesterol levels in diabetes (Madinov et al., 2000; Anwar and Meki, 2003). However, during diabetes protein catabolism leads to muscle wasting and increased release of purine, the main source of uric acid, as well as increased activity of xanthine oxidase (Anwar and Meki, 2003). The marked rise in plasma urea concentrations of diabetic rats may be due to proteolysis which leads to high levels of circulating amino acids and consequently deamination. However, in the liver, deamination during gluconeogenesis results in increased production of urea (Ganong, 2003). Hyperglycaemia is the major factor responsible for alterations of kidney parameters. Therefore, lowering of blood glucose and enhanced insulin secretion is the main target of any treatment. Insulin treatment in diabetes prevents hypertrophy, hyperfiltration and rise in urinary protein excretion (Bankir et al., 2001; Kurusu et al., 2000; Suanarunsawat et al., 1999). Kombucha confirmed its antidiabetic potency by its glucose lowering effect and increased insulin secretion as revealed from the results of this