Aim: To investigate the effect of ascorbic acid (AA) dietary supplementation on myenteric neurons and epithelial cell proliferation of the jejunum of adult rats with chronic diabetes mellitus.
Methods: Thirty rats at 90 d of age were divided into three groups: Non-diabetic, diabetic and diabetic treated with AA (DA) (1 g/L). After 120 d of treatment with AA the animals were killed. The myenteric neurons were stained for myosin-V and analyzed quantitatively in an area of 11.2 mm(2)/animal. We further measured the cellular area of 500 neurons per group. We also determined the metaphasic index (MI) of the jejunum mucosa layer of about 2500 cells in the intestinal crypts, as well as the dimensions of 30 villi and 30 crypts/animal. The data area was analyzed using the Olympus BX40 microscope.
Results: There was an increase of 14% in the neuronal density (792.6 +/- 46.52 vs 680.6 +/- 30.27) and 4.4% in the cellular area (303.4 +/- 5.19 vs 291.1 +/- 6.0) respectively of the diabetic group treated with AA when compared to control diabetic animals. There were no significant differences in MI parameters, villi height or crypt depths among the groups.
Conclusion: Supplementation with AA in the diabetic animal promoted moderate neuroprotection. There was no observation of alteration of the cellular proliferation of the jejunum mucosa layer of rats with chronic diabetes mellitus with or without supplementation with AA.