title: Beneficial effect of an ACTH4-9 analogue on experimentally induced diabetic autonomic neuropathy in the eye of the rat under general anaesthesia.
abstract: While peripheral polyneuropathy is a well-known complication in diabetes mellitus, and the subject of a great deal of study, the clinical importance of autonomic diabetic neuropathy is increasingly recognised. Using an animal model, where the pupil diameter of the eye serves as a parameter of autonomic function, we produced an age and weight curve of pupil diameter and studied the development of autonomic neuropathy in rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes. We show that diabetic rats develop significantly (P < 0.009) smaller pupils compared with controls, most probably due to a defective sympathetic input, caused by sympathetic neuropathy. Treatment with the neurotrophic peptide Org 2766, a synthetic ACTH4-9 analogue, prevents the occurrence of this sympathetic neuropathy, as the pupil diameters in the ACTH4-9 analogue-treated group are significantly (P < 0.05) larger than the pupils of placebo-treated rats, and are comparable to the pupil diameters of the rats in the control group.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Rudolf Magnus Institute, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: W P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Vandertop
authors.forename: W B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: de Vries
authors.forename: N C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Notermans
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Tulleken
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Gispen
mesh_terms: D000324:Adrenocorticotropic Hormone / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D003921:Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental / Q000139:chemically induced; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005123:Eye / Q000187:drug effects*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000473:pathology; D011680:Pupil; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D000324:Adrenocorticotropic Hormone