title: Hypoglycaemic effects of antidiabetic drugs in streptozotocin-nicotinamide-induced mildly diabetic and streptozotocin-induced severely diabetic rats.
abstract: In this study, streptozotocin-induced severely diabetic rats and streptozotocin-nicotinamide-induced mildly diabetic rats were established to compare their characteristics and to investigate the hypoglycaemic effects of antidiabetic drugs. Results show that in streptozotocin-induced severely diabetic rats, the pancreatic insulin content decreased to approximately 10% of that in normal rats. These severely diabetic rats also exhibited marked hyperglycaemia and impaired glucose tolerance due to insulin secretory deficiency. In contrast, the pancreatic insulin content was approximately 50% of normal levels in streptozotocin-nicotinamide-induced mildly diabetic rats. These mildly diabetic rats exhibited moderate hyperglycaemia and impaired glucose tolerance due to loss of early-phase insulin secretion. Voglibose (alpha-glucosidase inhibitor), metformin (biguanide), glibenclamide (sulfonylurea), sitagliptin (dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor) and insulin significantly improved glucose tolerance in streptozotocin-nicotinamide-induced mildly diabetic rats. In contrast, in streptozotocin-induced severely diabetic rats, voglibose, metformin and insulin significantly improved glucose tolerance, but no significant effect was observed for glibenclamide and sitagliptin due to a decreased insulinotropic effect. These results suggest that streptozotocin-nicotinamide-induced mildly diabetic rats, which exhibit a mild decline in glucose tolerance due to loss of early-phase insulin secretion, are sensitive to the hypoglycaemic effects of insulinotropic agents and have many pathological features resembling type 2 diabetes, which may be useful in the pharmacological investigation of numerous antidiabetic drugs.
authors.affiliation: Drug Discovery Research, Astellas Pharma Inc., Ibaraki, Japan. atsuo.tahara@jp.astellas.com
authors.forename: Atsuo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tahara
authors.forename: Akiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Matsuyama-Yokono
authors.forename: Ryosuke
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nakano
authors.forename: Yuka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Someya
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shibasaki
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis; D003921:Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005951:Glucose Tolerance Test; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D007328:Insulin / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D009536:Niacinamide; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013311:Streptozocin
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents; D007328:Insulin; D009536:Niacinamide; D013311:Streptozocin