Abstract

Various studies have studied the clinical use of alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) for treating diabetic complications. The protective effect of lipoic acid in atherosclerosis induced by diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM type 2) still needs further study. This study was aimed to investigate the protective effect of ALA in atherosclerosis induced by DM type 2. Twenty one rats were divided into 3 groups: control, DM−treated and DM+ALA-treated group. Type-2 diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (50 mg/kg) followed by nicotinamide (110 mg/kg). ALA was administered orally at a dose of 60 mg/kg body weight/day throughout the feeding period for three weeks. This study was an experimental study with post-test only with control method which was conducted at Biochemistry laboratory, Faculty of Medicine Universitas Riau from June-October 2016. This study showed that DM+ALA treated group achieved lower atherosclerosis scores than DM-treated group and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant. In conclusion, alpha lipoic acid can prevent atherosclerosis lesions induced by diabetes.