Young rats are susceptible to Diabetes Mellitus induced by alloxan.
Moraes-Silva, L., Bueno T.M., Negrini L.A., Jósê, A.S., Peixoto, N.C., Pereira M.E.
Depto de Química, PPG-Bioquímica Toxicológica, CCNE, UFSM, Santa Maria, RS
Diabetes Mellitus is a metabolic disease that generally appears in precocious age (humans from 9 –13 years old). In all works about diabetic animal models, diabetogenic drugs are administered on adult animals, not reproducing the appearance of disease seen in humans. The objective of this study was to verify the physiological and biochemical parameters of 90-day-old rats submitted to alloxan administration during the youth. The parameters observed were: water and food intake, creatinine, urea, glycemia, and glycated hemoglobin. For this, young Wistar rats were maintained in individual cages, free access to water and food, for a period of 5 days of habituation. At 30 and 45 days old, after 24 hour fasting, saline or alloxan (150 and 125 mg/kg, 30 and 45 days, respectively) were intraperitoneally administered. From day 1 until 90 after treatments, the body weight and water and food intake were verified each 2 days. After this period, animals fasting for 12 h were sedated with ether and the blood was collected from heart utilizing syringes with EDTA or heparin. The results demonstrated that only 40% of alloxan injected rats presented hyperglycemia at 90 days. Thus, the alloxan rats were divided into two groups: the normo-glycemic (119.5 mg/dL) and hyperglycemic (272.0 mg/dL) rats. The physiological parameters revealed that the hyperglycemic rats presented significant lower weight gain and bigger water and food intake than the other groups. These animals also presented (control x hyperglycemic): significant increase of urea (35.5 mg/dL x 56.7 mg/dL) and glycated hemoglobin (4.9% x 9.5%) levels. The creatinine levels were not significantly altered in hyperglycemic alloxan rats. The creatinine and urea parameters were analyzed since literature data relate about renal lesion by alloxan. However, the increase of urea without alteration of creatinine levels is verified by increase of protein catabolism, a common alteration in not compensated diabetes disease. Therefore, these results demonstrated that not all the rats alloxan treated became hyperglycemic, however, those that have become, presented the physiological and biochemical parameters according to diabetes disease.
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