The Effects of Insulin on the Organs of Normoglycemic Albino Rats

Insulin is a potent anabolic polypeptide hormone which plays important roles in glucose homeostasis, cell growth, and metabolism. Today in medicine, insulin is not used only in the treatment of diabetes but also in sport as a common doping agent for bodybuilding, in wound healing, in parenteral nutrition, in aging, and for treating many diseases, including acute coronary syndromes, cancer, calcium channel blocker poisoning, and schizophrenia. Exogenously given insulin causes appetite suppression which leads to weight loss, nevertheless, unsupervised administration of insulin into a nondiabetic individual may lead to many serious drops in the blood glucose level, some of which can be fatal; as a result, these actions are extremely risky. This study assessed the effects of insulin on the liver, kidney, and spleen of nondiabetic rats. Twelve albino rats were randomly divided into two groups of six animals each. Group 1 was the control group given physiological saline. Group 2 was treated with insulin (0.01 U/100 g) as a single dose for 3 days. Histopathological changes in the major organs (liver, kidneys, and spleen) were studied. The animal weight, organ weight, and blood creatinine, lactate, and vitamin B 12 levels were also measured. With insulin use, the weight of the animals, weight of the organs, and creatinine, lactate, and vitamin B 12 levels didn’t show alteration. The insulin treatment appeared to exhibit multiple structural damages with variable degrees in all three organs: the liver, kidney, and spleen. It could be concluded that administration of insulin to normoglycemic rats caused hepatic injury, renal toxicity, and damage to the spleen tissue.