protective effect of polymyxine b and nifedipine on diabetic complications in rat: role of protein kinase c

patients with diabetes mellitus (dm), experience significant morbidity and mortality from microvascular retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy. hyperglycemia can induce diabetic complications through multiple pathways. activation of protein kinase c (pkc) by hyperglycemia is one of the pathways which causes diabetic complications. effect of nifedipine (a calcium channel blocker), and polymyxine b sulphate (a protein kinase c inhibitor) was studied in adult male sprague- dawley rats, who was made diabetic with streptozotocin. pkc activity was determined in tissues and serum enzymes and metabolite level was measured in all controls, diabetic and drug treated animals. the results showed that, levels of the, urea (two –fold), creatinine (60%), triglyceride (two-fold) and liver alanine transaminase (alt) activity (two-fold), were significantly increased in diabetic group. in nifedipine, treated diabetic group, although urea and creatinine level was increased, but liver enzymes were not significantly different from those of control group. in diabetic group which was treated with polymyxine, all the measured metabolites and enzyme levels were the same as the control group, except glucose level which was increased and liver glycogen was decreased significantly. protein kinase c activity in the cytoplasm of diabetic liver was increased comparing to its control group (5.73 ± 0.56 vs, 4.00 ± 0.62). the enzyme activity in the plasma membranes of untreated and nifedipine treated diabetic groups was significantly increased (6.2 ± 0.42 and 3.66 ± 0.31 vs 2.38 ± 0.36). these results show that polymyxine is more effective than nifedipine against protein kinase c activity in diabetic complications. in conclusion our results show that, liver and kidney damage in dm are related to pkc activation. the fact that polymyxine prevents diabetic related increase in pkc activity more than nifedipine, support the hypothesis that different pkc isozymes may play different roles in the development of diabetic complications.