Can the BB-rat help to unravel diabetic neuropathy?

Diabetic neuropathy is probably the most common and one of the most disabling complications of diabetes mellitus. Although several possible pathogenetic mechanisms for this complication have been suggested, they cannot easily be tested in man. Therefore animal models with induced or spontaneous onset of diabetes mellitus have been used. The spontaneously diabetic BB-rat may provide a valuable model, since it displays both metabolic, functional and structural abnormalities of peripheral nerve similar to those present in humans. Based on systematic studies of these abnormalities in peripheral nerve in this model, inter-relationships between diabetic dysmetabolism, dysfunction and structural changes are starting to emerge. These findings are reviewed and a scheme of proven and proposed correlations which now can be tested in this animal model is presented.