title: Intermittent fasting modulation of the diabetic syndrome in sand rats. II. In vivo investigations.
abstract: This study deals with the effects of daily intermittent fasting for 15 h upon the development of diabetes in sand rats exposed to a hypercaloric diet. The same pattern of daily intermittent fasting was imposed on sand rats maintained on a purely vegetal diet (control animals). Over the last 30 days of the present experiments, non-fasting animals gained weight, whilst intermittently fasting sand rats lost weight. In this respect, there was no significant difference between control animals and either diabetic or non-diabetic sand rats exposed to the hypercaloric diet. The postprandial glycemia remained fairly stable in the control animals. During a 3-week transition period from a purely vegetal to a hypercaloric diet, the post-prandial glycemia increased by 5.95 ± 1.26 mM (n=6) in diabetic sand rats, as distinct from an increase of only 0.45 ± 0.56 mM (n=6) in the non-diabetic animals. During the intermittent fasting period, the postprandial glycemia decreased significantly in the diabetic animals, but not so in the non-diabetic sand rats. Before the switch in food intake, the peak glycemia at the 30th min of an intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test was already higher in the diabetic than non-diabetic rats. In both the non-diabetic and diabetic sand rats, intermittent fasting prevented the progressive deterioration of glucose tolerance otherwise observed in non-fasting animals. These findings reveal that, at least in sand rats, intermittent daily fasting prevents the progressive deterioration of glucose tolerance otherwise taking place when these animals are exposed to a hypercaloric diet.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Technologie Alimentaire et Nutrition, Université de Mostaganem, Mostaganem, Algeria.
authors.forename: Louiza
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Belkacemi
authors.forename: Ghalem
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Selselet-Attou
authors.forename: Karim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Louchami
authors.forename: Abdullah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sener
authors.forename: Willy J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Malaisse
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001786:Blood Glucose; D031204:Caloric Restriction; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000178:diet therapy* / Q000378:metabolism; D004435:Eating; D005215:Fasting / Q000502:physiology*; D005849:Gerbillinae; D005951:Glucose Tolerance Test; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose