The effect of glipizide treatment on the morphology of retinal capillaries from mice with the obese-hyperglycaemic syndrome.

Glipizide dissolved in saline was given daily as a single subcutaneous injection of 20 microgram to mice with the obese-hyperglycaemic syndrome during the first month of the study. During the following three months meglumin-glipizide was used and the animals were killed after this period. Obese-hyperglycaemic control mice were given daily injections of saline. Lean untreated mice were also used as controls. No significant differences were seen between the body weights of the glipizide treated and the control mice. The results of the blood glucose estimations showed significantly lower values in the glipizide treated animals. There were no change of body weight and blood glucose concentration of the lean mice. The serum insulin levels were not changed. The ratio between endothelial cells and intramural pericytes were significantly lower in the glipizide-treated mice. It is suggested that the techniques used in these experiments may contribute to the study of early morphologic and metabolic changes in the retinal capillaries and the effect of drug treatment.