Effect of L-arginine on Markers of Metabolic Syndrome Related to Abdominal Obesity And Disorder of Lipid Metabolism in Female Wistar Albino Rats

Metabolic syndrome (MES) (a cluster of features indicating metabolic disorders), is associated with a significant reduction in nitric oxide, NO, a major metabolite of L-arginine (ARG). Abdominal obesity and lipid disorder are among the risk factors whereas female gender is an independent risk factor for the development of MES in animals. Therefore, the aim of this study is to ascertain the effect of ARG on markers of MES related to abdominal obesity and disorder of lipid metabolism, using female Wistar albino rats as model. Two groups of female rats were given a single dose of 3 ml/kg body weight (bw) of distilled water, DW, and 60 mg/kg bw of ARG, respectively as control and treated groups. Exposing ARG to female rats evoked a non-significant increase (p>0.05) in waist circumference (13.00±0.84 cm) and waist:stature ratio (0.43±0.04) but a significant increase (p<0.01) in triacylglycerol to high density lipoprotein cholesterol (TAG:HDL-chol) ratio (3.46±0.06) of the rats, suggesting abdominal obesity that may worsen metabolic syndrome (MES) in the animals. The exposure elicited a significant increase (p<0.01) in the concentration of total cholesterol (T-chol) (69.36±0.24 mg/100 ml), HDL-chol (26.20±0.47 mg/100 ml), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-chol) (1.41±0.50 mg/100 ml) and triacyglycerol (TAG) (90.77±0.13 mg/100 ml) in the rats’ serum. These indicate adverse influence on lipid metabolism, and possibly on MES related to disorder of lipid metabolism in the female rats. In conclusion, this study suggests that ARG aggravated the markers of MES related to abdominal obesity and lipid metabolism in the female rats. This negates the hoped-for potential of ARG in the management of MES in animals.