REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE IN THE ALLOXAN DIABETIC FEMALE RAT

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Sexual maturity was delayed in prepuberal rats rendered diabetic by alloxan, and could not be attributed to inanition alone. Mature rats rendered diabetic ceased to have cyclic estrous periods, and the ovaries, uterus, and vagina involuted. Insulin restored the estrous cycles and fertility to normal in the sexually mature alloxan diabetic rats. When the insulin was withdrawn after breeding, some diabetic rats successfully delivered viable litters. In the majority, however, fetal death and resorption occurred about the 10th day of gestation. The lactational performances in alloxan-diabetic rats was variable and subnormal. This variability in reproductive performance probably accounts for the lack of agreement in the literature. No obvious correlation existed between the degree of hyperglycemia in rats which maintained pregnancy and in those which failed to deliver viable young.

This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit: