Glucosamine modulates membrane and cellular ionic homeostasis: studies on accelerated senescent and naturally aged rats

ABSTRACT

Glucosamine, an amino-polysaccharide, has been widely used for alleviating osteoarthritis. . In the present study, attempts have been made to evaluate the potential role of glucosamine, a caloric restriction mimetic (CRM), for erythrocyte membrane transporter protection in D-galactose (D-gal) induced accelerated and natural aging models of rat specifically Ca²⁺-ATPases (PMCA pump), Na⁺/K⁺-ATPases (NKA pump), and the Na⁺/H⁺ exchanger (NHE) and redox biomarkers during aging. The study comprised of young (3–4 months old; 150 ± 20 g), naturally aged (above 24 months; 420 ± 20 g) and D-galactose-induced aged (3–4 months old; 150 ± 20 g, administered with D-Gal at 300 mg/kg B.W., subcutaneously) male albino rats of Wistar strain. All the rats were supplemented with Glucosamine hydrochloride (300 mg/kg body weight) for 12 weeks. There was a significant (P < 0.05) decrease in the activity of Ca²⁺-ATPases, Na⁺/K⁺-ATPases and induced NHE activity in D-Gal and naturally old rats. Levels of redox biomarkers such as intracellular Ca²⁺ ion, protein carbonyl, and lipid hydroperoxides were also found to be increased significantly (P < 0.05). These results were found to be reversed in the rats supplemented with glucosamine. Our findings suggest that glucosamine supplementation improves ion homeostasis by protecting the erythrocyte membrane transporters against age-related alterations.

KEYWORDS:

• Glucosamine
• aging
• erythrocyte membrane
• ion homeostasis
• caloric restriction mimetic

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a research grant to Syed Ibrahim Rizvi from the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India (EMR/2016/006470), the Department of Biochemistry is supported by a Fund for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure (FIST) grant of DST-SERB, and university grants commission- Special Assistance Programme (UGC-SAP) Grant. Financial funding from Department of Biotechnology, Government of India under the RRFSP is gratefully acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Availability of data and material

The information that helps the finding of this study is accessible from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Author contribution

SIR conceived and designed research. KS conducted experiments, analyzed data, and wrote the manuscript, RK conducted experiments. All authors read and approved the manuscript and all data were generated in-house and that no paper mill was used.

Ethics approvals

All the protocols and procedures were followed as mandated by the Ethical Committee of the University of Allahabad, Allahabad, India. The work described has been also carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving animal.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a research grant to SIR from the SERB, Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India (EMR/2016/006470), the Department of Biochemistry is supported by a FIST grant of DST-SERB, and UGC-SAP Grant;Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology [Research Resources Services and Platforms];