Expression of orphan receptors GPR22 and GPR162 in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

AIMS/INTRODUCTION: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic degenerative disease characterized by high blood glucose levels as a result of problems in the action or insulin secretion. Although there are many treatments for this pathology, it has been associated with a high mortality rate. For this reason, it is important to try to identify new pathways that could be involved in diabetic complications. Recently, a new class of receptors has been reported, called orphan receptors because the associated ligand and signaling pathways are unknown, these receptors have been associated with certain pathologies. Therefore, the aim of this work was to study the expression of the orphan receptors GPR22 and GPR162 in heart, aorta, brain and kidney of diabetic rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used Wistar male rats with 10-12 weeks of age. Diabetes was induced by a single dose of streptozotocin (60 mg/kg i.p.). After four weeks, the tissue was obtained and the expression of the mRNA was measured by RT-PCR. RESULTS: Our results showed that the orphan receptors are expressed in a different way in heart, kidney, brain and aorta of diabetic and non-diabetic rats. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that orphan receptors could be involved in the development of diabetes complications.