The Effect of Tymoquinone on Vitamin D Metabolism in Glucocorticoid-Induced Insulin Resistance

Abstract

Abstract The key ingredient in Nigella sativa, thymoquinone (TQ), has several advantageous qualities, particularly antioxidant and anti-inflammatory ones. Recent research studies have shown the beneficial effects of thymoquinone, and this study aimed to look into how it affected vitamin D metabolism in populations with insulin resistance. Male Wistar-Albino rats were employed in the study as the subject matter for this reason. TQ was administered as a therapy, and prophylaxis and treatment with metformin were set up for the groups in which insulin resistance had been developed. The gene groups implicated in vitamin D metabolism underwent RT-PCR gene expression analysis and western blot protein analysis. The analysis's findings show that the application of TQ reduced HOMA-IR values, a sign of insulin resistance. It was found that the expression of the VDR gene may be responsible for the effect of TQ administration for the treatment of insulin resistance on vitamin D metabolism in liver tissue. The evaluation of TQ's effects on the gene expression of the genes involved in vitamin D metabolism in liver tissue and their translation into a protein produced significant findings. It has been demonstrated that using TQ for therapeutic and preventive reasons is advantageous for regressing insulin resistance metrics. Also found to be impacted was serum vitamin D level, which was found to be directly related to the expression of several genes involved in vitamin D metabolism in the liver, although some of these genes were found to be relatively ineffective in the present study.