Abstract—Abelmoschus esculentus,AE (okra or lady’s finger) is flowering plant and cultivated throughout the tropical and temperate region in the world. This plant is popular with its mucilaginous properties and has been acclaimed to have various health benefits which include anti-diabetic properties. This paper will provide the overview of the research framework and giving insight of the experimental procedure to be implemented to investigate the differential expression analysis of liver tissue in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat in response to Abelmoschus esculentus (AE) treatment. The hypoglycIemic effects of water extract prepared from the fruit of AE will be studied in diabetic rats (streptozotocin induced). The differential expression study will be carried out by using real time RT-PCR method. Four diabetes-specific genes of interest (carboxylesterase 2, stearoyl-Coenzyme A desaturase 1, insulin-like growth factor 1 and insulin-like growth factor binding protein 2 binding protein) will be selected and the expression level of these genes will be examined quantitatively. The abnormal expression of genes in STZ group will be rescued by the AE therapy. The expected findings from both in vivo and molecular studies may reveal the anti-diabetic properties of the AE and suggest that the plant extract may be useful for the management of the disease. A review of relevant literature and studies on AE will also be presented in this paper.

Index Terms—diabetes mellitus, abelmoschus esculentus, gene expression, stretozotocin

Indah Mohd Amin is currently with the Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia, 40450, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. (Phone: +603-55435836; fax: +603-55435803; e-mail: indahma@salam.uitm.edu.my).

Cite: Indah Mohd Amin, "Hypoglyclemic Effects in Response to Abelmoshus Esculentus Treatment: A Research Framework using STZ-Induced Diabetic Rats," International Journal of Bioscience, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 63-67, 2011.