Impairment of glucose tolerance in copper-deficient rats: dependency on the type of dietary carbohydrate.

Copper deficiency was induced in weanling rats in order to study the possible interaction between the types of dietary carbohydrate and copper deficiency on glucose tolerance. Weanling male rats were fed copper-deficient or copper-supplemented diets containing either 62% starch, fructose or glucose. During week 5 the fructose portion of the copper-deficient diet was replaced (20 rats) by starch (10 rats) or glucose (10 rats). During the 9th week, an oral glucose tolerance test weas performed. Copper deficiency was associated with impaired glucose tolerance characterized by increased blood glucose and decreased insulin levels only in copper-deficient rats fed the monosaccharides fructose or glucose but not the polysaccharide starch. Changing the dietary carbohydrates in the copper-deficient diet from fructose to starch increased insulin levels and decreased blood glucose in response to the glycemic stress when compared to rats continuously fed fructose. Although both glucose and fructose feeding impaired the glucose tolerance, fructose was more diabetogenic. This could be demonstrated by some improvements in glucose tolerance when the copper-deficient rats were switched from the fructose to the glucose diet. The data indicate that copper deficiency per se does not impair glucose tolerance.