Biological investigations on therapeutic effect of chitosan encapsulated nano resveratrol against gestational diabetes mellitus rats induced by streptozotocin

The chitosan encapsulation with bioactive compounds (resveratrol) is a significant method that can be used to raise the stability and effectiveness of substances in gestational diabetes management. In this study, the resveratrol–zinc oxide complex is encapsulated with chitosan (CS–ZnO–RS). The synthesized CS–ZnO–RS could be used to deliver the resveratrol with minimized side effects and also improved bioavailability. CS–ZnO–RS were characterized by various techniques such as particle size analyzer, DSC, FT-IR, TEM, SEM, and AFM. The electron microscopic and particle analyzer confirmed that the synthesized CS–ZnO–RS were monodispersed, spherical and its average size was 38 nm. The drug-releasing profile showed that 95% of RS is released from CS–ZnO–RS within 24 h. In vitro studies confirmed that α-glucosidase and α-amylase inhibitory activities were closely related to the concentration of CS–ZnO–RS. The highest inhibition of α-glucosidase (77.32%) and α-amylase (78.4%) was observed at 500 μg/mL. Furthermore, the treatment of CS–ZnO–RS significantly decreased the blood glucose levels in gestational diabetes mellitus induced rats and maintained the lipid content toward the normal rats. In addition, the CS–ZnO–RS reduced the level of inflammation factors (IL-6 and MCP-1) and endoplasmic reticulum stress (GRP78, p-IRE1α, p-eIF2α, and p-PERK).