Carbohydrate Metabolism in Alloxandiabetic Rats

Abstract

Mering and Minkowski¹ and also Hédon² have already found that the glycogen content of the liver and of the skeletal muscles, during experimental pancreas-diabetes, is being very much decreased. This was always confirmed by later authors and led to various hypotheses concerning the action of insulin on carbohydrate metabolism. By means of their mode of experimental procedure, Major and Mann³ were able to show that the formation of glycogen in pancreatectomized dogs is not suppressed in the case of permanent glucose infusion. Concerning the glycogen content of liver and skeletal muscles, Lackey, Bunde, Gill and Harris⁴ obtained the same results in alloxan-diabetic rats as Mering and Minkowski in pancreatectomized dogs. The investigations of Laszt⁵ and Laszt and Vogel⁶ on the carbohydrate metabolism in alloxan-diabetic rats make it probable that the formation of glycogen cannot be lowered. We were, therefore, induced to verify this point. The rats were made diabetic by the method suggested by Laszt⁵. There was no steatosis of the liver to be observed, neither macroscopically nor microscopically. This fact is of importance, as the formation of glycogen and its deposition is suppressed in fatty liver⁷.