Alpha-glucosidase inhibitor mitigates bone loss in type-1 diabetes

Diabetic nephropathy is a hallmark of diabetes mellitus (DM) and is characterized by kidney dysfunction. The kidney plays an important role in bone health by preserving the equilibrium of minerals viz., calcium and phosphate in the blood and 1,25-Dihydoxyvitamin D3 (Calcitriol) production. Previous studies have suggested that renal dysfunction is associated with dysregulated mineral reabsorption due to mineral-hormone imbalance, leading to bone loss and increased fracture risk in DM. Alpha-glucosidase inhibitor (AGI) is known to decelerate carbohydrate catabolism and delay glucose production to improve overall diabetic health. Nimbidiol is an AGI derived from the medicinal plant, Azadirachta indica and is considered a potential anti-diabetic natural compound. The purpose of our present study was to investigate whether AGI mitigates the imbalance of mineral homeostasis and eventual bone loss in type-1 diabetes. Twelve - fourteen weeks old wild-type, C57BL/6J (WT) and type-1 diabetic, C57BL6/‐ Ins2Akita /J (Akita) mice were either treated with saline or AGI (0.40 mg kg-1 d-1) by subcutaneous implantation of micro-osmotic pump for eight weeks. Diabetic Akita mice showed a distinct downregulation of sodium-phosphate co-transporter, Npt2a expression in the renal tubules compared to the WT mice. In addition, Akita mice exhibited a significant increase in alkaline phosphatase activity and decrease in Calcitriol and bone minerals such as calcium and phosphate levels in the blood. The changes were associated with a significant bone loss as evidenced by the increased thinning and porosity of cortical and trabecular bone and reduction of osteoblasts and osteocytes in diabetic femur. AGI treatment mitigated the pathological changes in Akita mice. Taken together, our results suggest that AGI preserves mineral homeostasis and thereby protects from bone loss in type-1 diabetes. DK116591 This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.