[The influence of cortisol treatment on the development of diabetic cataracts in rats (author's transl)].

The influence of daily subcutaneous cortisol injections (10 mg/kg) on the development of cataracts in streptozotocine (STR) diabetes was studied in 6 groups of Wistar rats (n = 10). Cataracts occurred only in the two groups subjected to high STR doses (60 mg/kg). We were astonished to find that in cortisol-treated diabetic animals there were lower blood glucose levels, fewer cases of glucosuria, and less pronounced cataracts than in rats treated with STR only. As STR had been administered after the start of cortisol therapy, it is assumed that the steroid had caused a protection of pancreatic B cells against STR and the onset of a less severe diabetes.