THE EFFECT OF CARVACROL UPON EXPERIMENTALLY INDUCED DIABETIC NEUROPATHY AND NEUROPATHIC PAIN IN RATS

Diabetic neuropathies are the most frequent complication of diabetes. While numerous metabolic pathways are disrupted in diabetic neuropathy, oxidative stress has been indicated as a significant reason for this condition. In this study, the effect of carvacrol, which has antioxidant effects, on experimental diabetic neuropathy and neuropathic pain was investigated. Alloxan was used to induce diabetes in the experiment. Diabetes was created by administering 120 mg/kg of alloxan intraperitoneally (i.p) once a day for 3 days. Rats with a blood glucose concentration above 250 mg/kg in the blood taken from the tail veins at the end of three days were considered diabetic. Rats were categorized under healthy control (HG), alloxan-induced hyperglycemia (AG), and alloxan-induced hyperglycemia + carvacrol-treated (ACG) groups. Carvacrol was i.p injected at 50 mg/kg dose to the ACG (n = 6) group of rats with hyperglycemia. The same volume of distilled water as the solvent was applied in the same way to AG (n = 6) and HG (n = 6) rat groups. This procedure was repeated once a day for three months. Carvacrol showed an anti-hyperglycemic effect in diabetic rats, a protective effect against lowering pain threshold, and analgesic activity in rat paws. Carvacrol prevented the oxidant/antioxidant balance from changing in favor of oxidants. The results supported that carvacrol is an agent against alloxan-induced peripheral diabetic neuropathic pain. © 2022 by Polish Pharmaceutical Society.