The reduced sensitivity to insulin of rats and mice fed on a carbohydrate-free, excess-fat diet / by H.W. Bainbridge.

  • Bainbridge, H. W.
Date:
[1925?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The reduced sensitivity to insulin of rats and mice fed on a carbohydrate-free, excess-fat diet / by H.W. Bainbridge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [Reprinted from the Journal of Physiology, Vol. LX. No. 4, September 4, 1925.] THE REDUCED SENSITIVITY TO INSULIN OF RATS AND MICE FED ON A CARBOHYDRATE-FREE, EXCESS-FAT DIET. By H. W. BAINBRIDGE. « (From the Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories.) The purpose of these experiments was to discover whether the sensitivity of animals to insulin could be altered by increasing the proportion of fat in the diet. Method. In the first series of experiments on rats the animals used were divided into two groups. One group was fed on the diet of Halli¬ burton and Drummond (called the complete diet), the other group on an exactly similar diet except that the starch was replaced by butter (the excess-fat carbohydrate-free diet) the two diets being of approxi¬ mately equivalent caloric value (Table I). Table I. Excess- carbohydrate fat-free grms. Casein 18 Butter — Starch 91 Salt mixture 5 Marmite 5 Diets. Excess-fat carbohydrate Complete free grms. grms. 18 18 20 40-7 47 — 5 5 5 5 The rats were kept in cages—two or three in each cage—provided with water and as much food as they could eat. At the end of a period, which varied from two to six weeks in the different experiments, the rats, which were starved for about 20 hours before injection, were placed in a room at a temperature of approximately 33° C. and injected sub¬ cutaneously with insulin. The dose given in all the experiments on rats was four clinical units per kilogram rat. Three clinical units per kgm. brings the blood sugar of 60 p.c. of rabbits down to *045 p.c. at room temperature. Rats are evidently normally less sensitive to insulin than rabbits. A room temperature of 33° C. was used because it has been found in these laboratories (T re van and Boock, private communica¬ tion) that rats are more susceptible to insulin, and show less range of variability at the higher temperature. Krogh (using mice) was the first