OLETF (Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty) rat: a new NIDDM rat strain.
The characteristic features of OLETF rats are: (1) late onset of hyperglycemia (after 18 weeks of age); (2) a chronic course of disease; (3) mild obesity; (4) clinical onset of diabetes mellitus (DM) mostly in males; (5) hereditary trait: (a) multiple recessive genes are involved in the induction of DM; (b) rat MHC, RT1 has no diabetogenic effect; (c) control strain, LETO appears to share some of diabetogenic genes with OLETF rats; (d) female OLETF rats also carry diabetogenic genes; and (e) one of the diabetogenic genes, designated as odb-1, is transmitted linked with the X-chromosome of OLETF rats, however testosterone is an important factor involved in developing diabetes; (6) the changes of pancreatic islets can be classified into three stages: (1) an early stage (at less than 9 weeks of age) mild lymphocyte infiltration; (2) a hyperplastic stage (10-40 weeks of age); hyperplastic change and fibrosis in or around islets; (3) a final stage (at more than 40 weeks of age) showing atrophy of islets; (7) diabetic nephropathy; (a) diffuse glomerulosclerosis; (b) nodular lesion (thickening of basement membranes, mesangial proliferation, fibrin cap). These clinical and pathologic features of disease in OLETF rats resemble those of human NIDDM.
Tokushima Research Institute, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Japan.
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Kawano
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Hirashima
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Mori
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Natori
D000818:Animals; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D003928:Diabetic Nephropathies / Q000473:pathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains / Q000235:genetics*; D012737:Sex Factors; D014960:X Chromosome