CIRCADIAN SUSCEPTIBILITY RHYTHM OF THE RAT TO ALLOXAN

  • 1 January 1978
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 5  (4) , 369-378
Abstract
The susceptibility of rats to alloxan undergoes a circadian rhythm. The toxicity rhythm, presumably involving injury to liver, kidney and other sites, pancreatic .beta.-cells in particular, was demonstrated in pooled data from 370 mature inbred Fischer or Minnesota Sprague-Dawley rats of both sexes kept in light from 0600 to 1800 alternating with darkness, some with free access to Purina laboratory chow with tap water at all times and some other rats subjected to 1 of 3 starvation schedules: a 28-h fast before an i.v. alloxan injection; a 28-h fast, except for a 4-h ad lib feeding before injection; a 28-h fast, except for a 4-h pre-injection tube-feeding of Nutrament (Mead and Johnson, Evansville, Indiana), 1.5 ml/100 g body wt. Survival time data on an additional 200 inbred Fischer rats revealed that susceptiblity to alloxan increases as the starvation span is lengthened from 24-84 h. The shortening in survival time indicative of this susceptiblity increase is nonlinear; a circadian rhythmic change in susceptiblity to alloxan is seen as a statistically significant wave-form indicative of the basic (persisting) rhythm, of applied interest as well to students of experimental diabetes.

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