A Comparative Study of Antidiabetic Effect of Bromocriptine and Metformin in Alloxan-induced Diabetic Rats

Bromocriptine mesylate quick release formulation has recently been approved by FDA for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. Till now it has been mainly known for its use in Parkinsonism and for suppression of lactation. Present study evaluates and compares the antihyperglycemic effect of the combination of bromocriptine and metformin with either of the two drugs taken alone. For this fasting blood sugar level of all the groups were measured on day 1,7,14 and 21 of treatment. In this study all the three treatment groups was found to have significant (P<0.05) blood glucose lowering effect. Fall in fasting blood was less in bromocriptine treated group as compared to groups treated with metformin and those treated with combination of the two. It is concluded that hypoglycemic effect of combination of metformin and bromocriptine is better than either of the two drugs taken alone. This may be due to potentiation or synergism between metformin and bromocriptine. Further studies are required to prove that bromocriptine has constantly significant hypoglycemic effect with better safety profile than the earlier drugs. INTRODUCTION: Diabetes mellitus is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among Indian population. The Diabetes Atlas published by the International Diabetes Federation shows there are currently over 40 million diabetic patients in India 1 . The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) reports a projected prevalence of 70 million patients in India by the year 2025 and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that India will have 80 million cases of diabetes by 2030 2 . This places India second only to China in terms of number of people living with diabetes 3 .