The guinea pig as an animal model of diabetes mellitus.
Spontaneous diabetes mellitus, observed in a colony of guinea pigs, parallels in many ways the syndrome known as juvenile diabetes mellitus in man: elevated blood glucose levels; reproductive dysfunction in the female; degranulation and severe cytoplasmic vacuolation of beta cells, severe fatty degeneration of acinar cells, and hyperplasia of the islets of the pancreas; and a high frequency of abnormal pancreatic secretions. Islet-cell necrosis and insulinitis usually seen in viral infections was not observed. Microangiopathy, another characteristic of juvenile diabetes mellitus in man was demonstrated as a significant increase in the thickness of the basal membranes in peripheral capillaries. A glomerular lesion encountered in some of the diabetic guinea pigs was shown to be similar to the glomerular sclerosis seen in human diabetics. Although a definitive etiologic agent was not identified, the disease was clearly contagious in origin.
D000818:Animals; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D006029:Glycosuria; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D006884:Hydroxybutyrate Dehydrogenase / Q000378:metabolism; D007678:Kidney Glomerulus / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008297:Male; D010179:Pancreas / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D012075:Remission, Spontaneous; D012376:Rodent Diseases / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology
D001786:Blood Glucose; D006884:Hydroxybutyrate Dehydrogenase