The Effect of the Aquatic Extract of Stevia on the MDA Level and Catalase Activity in the Testicular Tissue of Streptozotocin-Nicotinamide-Induced Diabetic Rats

It is believed that diabetes has undesirable impacts on the function of the reproductive system in men like decreasing plasma testosterone levels and sperm count and making apoptosis in the testicular germ cells. There are some chemical drugs for improving the complications, but it has been proven that chemicals have many side effects in the patients. Hence, herbal medicines due to anti-oxidant properties, less cost, and fewer side effects can be beneficial substitutions for chemical drugs. Nowadays, Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni as a sweet plant has shown to be effective in ameliorating diabetic problems. This experimental study investigated the effects of stevia on suppressing oxidative stress in Streptozotocin-Nicotinamide (STZ-NA)-induced diabetic rats’ testes.
In the present study, adult Wistar rats were separated into three diabetic groups and two sham groups each containing 10 rats: 1. normal group receiving 1 mL of water; 2. diabetic control group receiving 1 mL of water; 3. and 4. diabetic groups treated with the aquatic extracts of stevia (400 mg/kg) and metformin (500 mg/kg), respectively (treated four weeks after confirming diabetes for 14 days); and 5. healthy group treated with the aquatic extract of stevia (400 mg/kg). Finally, after six weeks, the rats were anesthetized, blood samples were collected from the heart for evaluating serum glucose, and testis tissues were separated for measuring Malondialdehyde (MDA) level and Catalase (CAT) activity. Statistical analysis was carried out using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by Tukey post hoc multiple-comparison test and data were presented as the mean±standard error of the mean (SEM).
This study documented that stevia significantly declined serum glucose (P The upshot of all, stevia, due to its antioxidant nature, could improve oxidative stress in the testis tissue of diabetic rats.