www.ijbcp.com International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology | March-April 2016 | Vol 5 | Issue 2 Page 423 IJBCP International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology Print ISSN: 2319-2003 | Online ISSN: 2279-0780 Research Article Study to assess the role of bromocriptine in treatment of diabetes mellitus Anuj Kumar Pathak, Subodh Kumar, Manish Kumar*, Harihar Dikshit INTRODUCTION Type 2 Diabetes mellitus is resistance to insulin in various tissues like muscle, liver and adipose tissues which results in impairment of glucose uptake. 1 It is a disease linked to abnormal carbohydrate, protein and lipid metabolism, accounts for more than 90% of all cases of diabetes. 2,3 According to International Diabetes Federation currently over 40 million diabetic patients are Indians and by year 2025 prevalence of diabetes in India will be 70 million. 4,5 This places India second only to China in terms of number diabetes population. 6 By the year 2025, India shall have the maximum number of diabetics in the world making it the “Diabetic capital of the world.” 7 The prevalence of the disease is 2.4% in rural and 4.0 - 11.6% in urban population. 8 Type-2 diabetes mellitus is a common chronic morbidity in the elderly. 9 20% of the elder population suffers from type-2 diabetes mellitus in India. 10 This is attributed to various factors such as physical inactivity, rich food habits and sedentary life style leading to obesity. 11 Since early 90s, a number of oral hypoglycemic drugs or their combinations are available for the management of type-2 diabetes mellitus and newer drugs are being approved regularly. 12 These drugs are commonly used for earlier and uncomplicated cases of diabetes mellitus and ABSTRACT Background: Bromocriptine is a dopamine D2 receptor agonist and a sympatholytic agent used very frequently in treatment of hyperprolactinemia, Parkinsonism and acromegaly. Its quick release formulation has been approved for treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus as an adjunct to diet and exercise. This study evaluated the antihyperglycemic effect of quick release bromocriptine in alloxan induced diabetic rats. Methods: 24 albino rats were taken and divided into four groups of six rats in each group. Diabetes was induced in three groups and one group was kept as a control group. After successful induction of diabetes, in remaining three group, first group was given no treatment second group was treated with bromocriptine and the third group was treated with metformin. Fasting blood sugar of all the groups were measured on day 1, 7, 14 and 28 of treatment. Results: In this study both the treatment groups were found to have significant (P<0.05) antihyperglycemic effect. Further studies are needed to evaluate and compare antihyperglycemic effect and safety profile of bromocriptine with established antidiabetic drugs. Conclusions: From this study, we concluded that individually both metformin and bromocriptine were effective in controlling hyperglycemia but metformin was better in achieving normal mean FBS. Further studies are required to ascertain the consistency in hypoglycemic effect of bromocriptine as well as its effect in lipid profile and cardiovascular outcomes. Study taking different doses of bromocriptine or with increasing the duration of study can elaborate its role in achieving proper glycemic control over time. Keywords: Alloxan, Bromocriptine, Fasting blood sugar, Diabetes mellitus DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20160756 Department of Pharmacology, IGIMS, Patna, Bihar, India Received: 08 January 2016 Revised: 08 February 2016 Accepted: 09 February 2016 *Correspondence to: Dr. Manish Kumar, Email: manu072@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open- access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non- Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non- commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.