COMPARISON OF THE EFFECTS OF AMINOGUANIDINE AND L-CARNITINE TREATMENTS ON SOMATOSENSORIAL EVOKED-POTENTIALS IN ALLOXAN-DIABETIC RATS

The effects of aminoguanidine (AG) and L-carnitine (LC) on somatosenso rial evoked potential (SEP) latency and neural levels of thiobarbituri c acid reactive substances (TEARS), products of lipid peroxidation, we re compared in alloxan-diabetic rats. AG and LC were given to diabetic rats starting from the 3rd week after the induction of diabetes and l asting for 4 weeks. SEP latency was measured by stimulating via caudal nerve and recording via cortex, once weekly during the treatments. Di abetes caused deficits in SEP (P < 0.05 vs non-diabetic control rats, respectively). AG and LC restored SEP latencies slightly but not signi ficantly, with the exception of the prominent effect of AG at the firs t week and both treatments at the 4th week of the treatments (P ( 0.05 vs untreated diabetic rats, respectively): Diabetes caused elevation in neural TEARS levels (P < 0.05 vs non-diabetic group), which was pre vented by both AG and LC (P < 0.05 vs untreated diabetic rats, respect ively). Weight and the glucose levels were not influenced by the treat ments. Our results suggest that AG improves SEP latencies better than LC. Our results also suggest that the beneficial effects of both AG an d LC on diabetic neuropathy are not associated with the regulation of glycemia, but these effects may be related in part with prevention of lipid peroxidation.