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ARTICLE

Effects of the ascorbic acid supplementation on NADH-diaphorase myenteric neurons in the duodenum of diabetic rats

MARLI APARECIDA DOS SANTOS PEREIRA, MARIA CLAÚDIA BAGATIN, JACQUELINE NELISIS ZANONI

Departament of Morphophysiological Sciences; State University of Maringá, Paraná, Brazil.
Address correspondence to: Dra. Marli Aparecida dos Santos Pereira. Departamento de Ciencias Morfofisiológicas, Universidade Estadual de Maringá. Av. Colombo 5790 Bloco H-79. CEP 87020900 Maringá, PR, BRASIL. Fax: (+55-44) 261 4340. E-mail: madspereira@uem.br

BIOCELL 2006, 30(2), 295-300. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2006.30.295

Abstract

We assessed the ascorbic acid (AA) supplementation on the myenteric neurons in the duodenum of rats. Fifteen rats with 90 days of age were divided into three groups: control (C), diabetics (D) and ascorbic acid treated diabetics (DA). After 120 days of daily treatment with AA, the duodenum was submitted to the NADH-diaphorase (NADH-d) histochemical technique, which allowed us to evaluate the neuronal density in an area of 8.96 mm² for each duodenum, and also to measure the cellular profile area of 500 neurons per group. The supplementation promoted an increase on AA levels. The neuronal density (p <0.05) was higher in the group DA when compared to group D. There were no significant differences in the neuronal areas, when we compared groups C (204 ± 16.5) and D (146.3 ± 35.84) to groups D and DA (184.5 ± 5.6) (p> 0.05). The AA-supplementation avoided the density reduction of the NADHd myenteric neurons in the duodenum of diabetic rats.

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