The Effect of Marrubium vulgare on Contractile Response of Aorta in Diabetic Rats

Regarding growing incidence of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases in diabetes mellitus, the effect of oral intake of Marrubium vulgare (MV) shoots on contractile response of isolated aorta was investigated in rats for two months in Tehran during 2003. In this experimental study 44 male wistar rats were randomly divided into control, MV-treated control, diabetic and MV- treated diabetic groups. To induce diabetes 60 mg/kg streptozotocin was applied intraperitoneally. Two MV- treated groups received MV powder mixed with standard pelleted food at a weight ratio of 1/15. After 2 months, contractile response of aortic rings to KCl and noradrenaline was determined using isolated tissue setup and the results were analysed through Tokey, variance of analysis and repeated measure tests. Serum glucose level showed a significant increase in diabetic group in the 4th and 8th weeks (P=0.001), compared with the week before experiment, whereas serum glucose level in MV-treated diabetic group showed no significant decline compared with diabetic group. In addition, contractile response to KCL and noradrenaline in MV-treated diabetic group was significantly lower than untreated diabetic group (P=0.03). Furthermore, no significant difference was observed in contractile response to KCL and noreadrenaline between MV-treated control and control groups. With regard to the obtained results it could be concluded that oral intake of Marrubium vulgare for 2 months attenuates the contractile response of the vascular system and probably prevents the hypertension in diabetic rats. More research in this field is recommended.