Increased oxidative stress is one aspect of the multifaceted metabolic illness known as diabetes mellitus, which plays a role in the disease's etiology. This has led to numerous studies on the application of antioxidants as an additional treatment strategy. Due to its ability to balance anti-inflammatory cytokines and modulate the immune response, vitamin D may be an unexpected target for the development of novel treatment plans for individuals with autoimmune illnesses, particularly diabetes mellitus.
Through the inhibition of ceramide formation, carnitine can reduce oxidative stress and prevent apoptosis, or programmed cell death. This study was designed to investigate the possible beneficial effects of vitamin D and L carnitine and their combination to attenuate diabetic nephropathy in rats. Rats were classified into five groups; control, diabetic untreated, and three diabetic groups treated with carnitine, vitamin D and carnitine + vitamin D. Treatment with carnitine and vitamin D has been continued for 16 weeks. Treated group was found to significantly reduce the high levels of glucose, urea, creatinine, sodium, potassium, MDA, SOD, IL-6, and TNF-α in serum compared with the diabetic untreated group. Additionally, the treated animal groups showed improvements in the size of the Langerhans island. These studies indicate that by reducing oxidative stress and lessening diabetic nephropathy, L-carnitine and vitamin D therapy has a therapeutic protective impact in diabetes. As a result, vitamin D and L-carnitine may be clinically helpful in preventing oxidative stress in diabetic kidney patients.