Effect of pumpkin seed on anthropometric, biochemical and genetic marker of Metabolic Syndrome

The metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors that identifies a population with increased risk for developing type T2DM and cardiovascular disease (CVD). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome in urban population of India was 32%. The Adult Treatment Panel III (ATPIII) criteria of the National Cholesterol and Education Program (NCEP The diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome are the presence of any three of the following five components is diagnostic for the metabolic syndrome: Central obesity, elevated blood pressure, raised fasting glucose, raised levels of triglycerides and low levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Although, the most common treatment is medications but in recent time, use of nutritional methods and medicinal plants are also increasing and gaining importance due to their high margin of safety. However, some of them have been studied scientifically and pumpkin seed is one of them. Thus, the objective of the study was to assess the effect of pumpkin seeds on glycaemic profile, lipid profile, anthropometric measurements and adiponectin level and its gene expression in metabolic syndrome patients. The study patients will be recruited from OPD of Department of Medicine, with collaboration Department of Physiology, King Georges Medical University, Lucknow. Enrollment of patients will be done according to inclusion criteria. Then baseline assessments will be done of anthropometric measurements i.e., BMI, WHR, biochemical parameters like CBC, FBS, PPBS, HbA1c and TG, TC, LDL, HDL, IL-6 (Interleukin-6), Tumor necrosis factor- alpha (TNF-α), Adiponectin level and its Gene Expression and clinical parameters including BP and Heart rate. Then supplementation of 30 gm pumpkin seed per day i.e., 15 gm before half an hour of breakfast and 15 gm before half an hour of dinner will be given to the case group patients for 3 months and no intervention in the control group will be given. Compliance of daily consumption of pumpkin seeds would be monitored in the case group. All case group patients will be requested to return their supplement packaging every month. The pumpkin seeds will be provided to the patients every month for a duration of 3 months. The follow up assessment of the patients will be done after 3 months of pumpkin seed supplementation. The baseline and follow up assessments, data will be compiled, entered in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for further data statistical analysis.