الفهرس 
Introduction and Aim of the WorkOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Diabetes mellitus (UM) is a chronic metabolic disease, which affects more than 170 million people worldwide. an incidence estimated to rise 50% by 2030. Many drugs have several serious adverse etTects and the cost of the treatment which is often prohibitively high in developing countries leading to increasing demand of alternative medicine in
This study is concerned with the description of structural changes in rat pancreas following STZ administration as a promising experimental model of diabetes and evaluation of the efficacy of a natural agent as QCT in the treatment of these changes.
To display the role of QCT in this diabetic model, 45 male albino rat:, weighting 200 X250 g at the age of 12 weeks old, were used. Rats were divided randomly into three I; the control group 15 rats received a single intraperitcneal injection of citrate buffer saline. Group II; the diabetic group , 15 rats rEceived a single intraperitoneal injection of a single dose of STZ (75 mg/kg body weight). Group III; the QCT treated group, 15 rats received daily intraperitoneal injections of QCT (25mg/kg body weight / day) for 30 days before a single intraperitoneal injection of STZ (75 mg/kg body weight) and continues for another 30 days. Blood samples were collected from tail veins for monitoring blood glucose levels. Pancreas was taken out, rapidly fixed, and processed for light microscopic, immunocytochemical and morphometrical studies .
• The blood glucose level of the diabetic group showed inc:iease in its level at 48h after STZ injection but became highest levels at ~,o day after STZ injection. while QCT treated group returned relatively:o normal blood glucose levels, compared to control group. There wa.> no significant difference noted either at 48h or 30 days after STZ injections.
In chl’orne alum heamatoxylin stained sections:-STZ administration caused degenerative changes in islets especially at the center with decreased numbers of bluish stained ~ cells, while pest treatment with QCT showed significantly increase in the ~ cell mass which confirmed by morphometric study compared to diabetic group ””ith no significant difference comared to control .
• By using charcoal for labeling the macrophages, sections of the diabetic group showed many charcoal labeled cells infiltrating the islet, while QCT treated group showed few charcoal labeled cells.
• Immunohistochemical studies showed obvious high immunoreactivity for activated caspase 3 and iNOS in the diabetic group, while QCT treated group showed no immunoreactivity for both.
Consequently. the above data indicated the roie of QCT in protection of the pancreas against diabetic injury. In this study, there are different mechanisms for explanation the protective effect of QCT against diabetic injury. QCT protect the islet from the degeneration and the damage induced by inflammatory cell infiltration through decrease inflammatory reaction by decrease inflammatory cell infilteratioil and decrease macrophages. QCT act as antioxidant by decrease level of iNOS expression .QCT decrease apoptosis by decrease caspase3 immunoreactivity. QCT increases the number of ~ cells this might through stimulation of the ductal cell differentiation into new ~ cells.
It is fairly to mention that one study is not capable of giving an int’~rpretation about the protective effect for such substance, with multiple mechanisms and diverse actions that are not completely elucidated till now. Thus, further studies are still required to clarify this point in further details.