Structural changes in endocrine pancreas of male Wistar rats due to chronic cola drink consumption. Role of PDX-1

GABRIEL CAO; JULIAN GONZALEZ; JUAN P ORTIZ FRAGOLA; ANGELICA MULLER

PLOS ONE

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Lugar: San Francisco; Año: 2021

1932-6203

The objective of this work was analyzing the structural changes of the pancreatic islets in rats, after 6 month consuming regular and light cola. Also, we analyzed the possible role of PDX-1 in that process. Finally, with the available knowledge, we propose a general working hypothesis that explains, for the first time, the succession of phenomena observed in this experimental model, which are potentially linked to the development of type 2 diabetes.In previous studies, we reported evidence showing that chronic cola consumption in rats impairs pancreatic metabolism of insulin and glucagon and produces some alterations typically observed in the metabolic syndrome (i.e., hyperglycemia, and hypertriglyceridemia) with an increase in oxidative stress. Of note, no apoptosis nor proliferation of islet cells could be demonstrated. In the present study, 36 male Wistar rats were divided in three groups to freely drink regular cola (C), light cola (L), or water (W, control). We assessed the impact of the three different beverages in glucose tolerance, lipid levels, creatinine levels and immunohistochemical changes addressed for the expression of insulin, glucagon, PDX-1 and NGN3 in islet cells, to evaluate the possible participation of PDX-1 in the changes observed in α and β cells after 6 months of treatment. On the other hand, we assessed by stereological methods, the mean volume of islets (Vi) and three important variables, the fractional β -cell area, the cross-sectional area of alpha (A α-cell) and beta cells (A β-cell), and the number of β and α cell per body weight. Data were analyzed by two-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni multiple t-test or by Kruscal-Wallis followed by Dunn test (depending on distribution). Statistical significance was set at p