Hydrogen exerts neuroprotective effects by inhibiting oxidative stress in experimental diabetic peripheral neuropathy rats
Han XC, Ye ZH, Hu HJ, Sun Q, Fan DF. · Medical Gas Research. 2023;13(2):72–77.
What kind of evidence is this?
Preclinical
Randomized three-group streptozotocin-induced diabetes experiment
Metabolic and lipid health
Other forms
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
Methods at a glance
Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats with diabetes induced by a single intraperitoneal 65 mg/kg streptozotocin injection.
24 rats randomized to healthy control, untreated diabetes and diabetes plus hydrogen-rich saline, n=8 per group.
Daily treatment for eight weeks.
Beginning three days after diabetes induction, rats received hydrogen-rich saline 10 mL/kg by intraperitoneal injection once daily; no insulin or antidiabetic drugs were given.
H₂ dissolved in saline — H₂ only, not Brown's gas and not inhalation.
Hydrogen was dissolved in saline for 3 hours at 0.4 MPa and the solution was prepared one day before use; gas chromatography confirmed a target concentration of 0.6 mmol/L.
Not applicable — intraperitoneal hydrogen-rich saline, not gas inhalation.
No O₂ was co-delivered as part of the intervention.
Diabetic rats receiving the same 10 mL/kg volume of ordinary physiological saline and non-diabetic controls receiving vehicle.
Outcomes and reported result
Body-mass gain, blood glucose, motor nerve-conduction velocity, sciatic-nerve myelin morphology and density, malondialdehyde, reactive oxygen species, 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine, superoxide dismutase and Nrf2, heme oxygenase-1 and catalase protein expression.
Hydrogen-rich saline partially restored motor nerve-conduction velocity and myelinated-nerve density and area and reduced the reported oxidative-stress measures while increasing SOD and Nrf2-pathway proteins versus untreated diabetic rats. Body-mass gain remained non-significantly different from untreated diabetes at weeks 4 and 8 (p>0.05).
The complete open-access article, allocation, saline preparation, concentration and dose, positive and null results, funding and conflict statement were checked.
A reported association, difference or mechanism is not automatically a clinical benefit. Null findings, outcome type, study design and precision all matter.
Cautions and applicability
Preclinical model with only eight rats per group, one sex, many biochemical outcomes and no behavioral pain testing or long-term post-treatment follow-up. The abstract incorrectly contrasts 'hydrogen inhalation' with hydrogen-rich saline, while the Methods describe only daily intraperitoneal hydrogen-rich saline; the structured record follows the Methods and flags the discrepancy. The Innovation Cultivation Foundation of Navy General Hospital funded the work; authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Streptozotocin-induced diabetic peripheral-nerve injury in rats; it does not establish treatment efficacy, dosing or safety in people with diabetic neuropathy.
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
No single-study GRADE certainty rating is assigned. Certainty is assessed by important outcome across a complete eligible evidence set, not by attaching a final grade to one source.
Sources and record status
PMID: 36204786 · DOI: 10.4103/2045-9912.345171
Open-access Medical Gas Research article and PubMed Central copy.
Complete PubMed Central/Medical Gas Research article and PubMed metadata; full-text extraction checked 9 August 2026.
2026-08-10