Introduction: Stevia and vanadium have been shown to affect blood sugar regulation. Accordingly, the simultaneous study of endurance activity and consumption of vanadium and stevia extract on the liver tissue of diabetic rats was considered.
Materials and Methods: The 35 male rats (180±10 g) (6-8 weeks) were randomly divided into 7 groups: control, diabetic, diabetic+exercise, diabetic+vanadium, diabetic+exercise+vanadium, diabetic+stevia and diabetic+ exercise+stevia. To induce type1 diabetes, streptozotocin (55mg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally, and vanadium extract (1mg/ml) was dissolved in water daily. The training program consisted of eight weeks of running, five days a week, starting at 15 minutes at 20 meters/minute and ending at 35 minutes at 30 meters/minute in the final week. Histopathological changes in liver tissue were examined using a light microscope. In order to normalize the parametric data, Shapiro-Wilk test and for their analysis, one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc test, and for non-parametric data, Kruskal-Wallis test (p≤0.05) was used.
Results: Body weight values in all six experimental groups compared to the healthy control group (p=0.001), in the vanadium group compared to the vanadium+exercise (p=0.01), and in stevia+exercise group compared to stevia (p=0.04), decreased significantly. Cell, central and lobular vein destruction, and sinusoidal space were ameliorated by exercise intervention, vanadium and stevia (alone as well as concomitantly), but only vanadium+exercise was effective in inflammation and hyperemia (p=0.001).
Conclusion: Eight weeks of endurance exercise, stevia and vanadium intake appear to be effective in regulating body weight as well as improving the liver damage caused by diabetes.