Diabetes mellitus is one of the unfavourable intrauterine environments in which foetus grow and this predisposes them to abnormalities which occur later in their adult life. Impaired pancreatic islet development which result from this unfavourable environment during foetal life has been linked to lead to type 2 diabetes mellitus. The study was carried out to investigate the effect of Moringa oleifera leaf extract on foetal pancreatic development in streptozotocin-induced diabetic Wistar rats. 30 female Wistar rats (150-200g) were used. They were grouped into: group A (control), group B (diabetic), group C (Insulin), group D-F (diabetic treated with 120mg, 240mg, 600mg/kg Moringa oleifera respectively). The rats were induced with diabetes and kept with males in a 2:1 ratio. The presence of spermatozoa in the vaginal smear the following morning confirmed mating. The animals were sacrificed on day 20. The whole foetus was collected for gene expression. The result of this study revealed that the administration of Moringa oleifera at different doses showed a significant increase in Pancreatic duodenum homebox-1 and insulin relative expression when compared to the diabetic control group. There was also a slight increase observed in Pancreatic duodenum homebox-1 when compared with the basal control and insulin control. The diabetic control group exhibited decrease in the Pancreatic duodenum homebox-1 gene expression and insulin expression when compared to the basal control. This suggest that Moringa oleifera leaf extract can ameliorate the long-term effect of streptozotocin-induced diabetes on the embryonic pancreatic development.

Keywords : Moringa oleifera, Leaf, Extract, Diabetes Mellitus, Foetus.