Summary
A technique was developed to permit estimation of intravenous glucose tolerance and the concomitant immunoreactive insulin (IRI) response in the Geneva colony of the semi-desert rodentAcomys cahirinus. Following intravenous injection of glucose 1.5 g/kg, youngAcomys (2–3 months, 25–35 g body weight) had a significantly lower glucose tolerance (p<0.01) and a smaller 30 min integrated plasma IRI response (p<0.001) than age and weight matched albino mice. With increasing age (8 and 21 months) and body weight (57 to 100 g) of theAcomys, glucose tolerance and plasma IRI response decreased further, and in the 21 month old group there were 2 overtly diabetic animals. There was a significant negative correlation between intravenous glucose tolerance and body weight in olderAcomys. The results suggest that pancreatic B-cell responsiveness to glucose is impaired inAcomys of all ages, and that this is associated with poor glucose tolerance which may be aggravated by obesity.
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This work was supported by Grants nos. 3.384.70 and 3.1060.73 of the Fonds National Suisse pour la Recherche Scientifique, Bern, Switzerland, and by the Fondation Education et Recherche, Basel, Switzerland.
Centennial Fellow of the Medical Research Council of Canada.
On leave from the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden; Visiting Professor at the University of Geneva; Recipient of Pfizer Travel Award through the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.
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Gutzeit, A., Rabinovitch, A., Studer, P.P. et al. Decreased intravenous glucose tolerance and low plasma insulin response in spiny mice (Acomys cahirinus). Diabetologia 10 (Suppl 1), 667–670 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01222002
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01222002