Islet transplantation reverses carcass protein loss in diabetic rats without inducing disproportionate fat accumulation.

The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial demonstrated that intensive insulin therapy (IIT) improves many secondary complications of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. However, weight gain in IIT is associated with increased body fat, and no improvement in lean body mass. In the present study we investigated the effects of experimental diabetes on changes in body composition and probed the benefit of glycaemic control achieved through islet transplantation. Male Wistar Furth rats (weight 273 +/- 9 g) made diabetic for 2 weeks with streptozotocin (55 mg/kg) were infused intraportally with 3265 +/- 692 (150 microns islet equivalent units) syngeneic islets of Langerhans. Body composition was evaluated by proximate analysis in carcasses of transplant rats (Trans), and also in rats made diabetic for 2 or 7 weeks (Db-2, Db-7) and in 2- and 7-week sham controls (Sham-2, Sham-7). Fed plasma glucose levels were 7.3 +/- 1.1, 28.2 +/- 2.4, 26.8 +/- 3.9, 7.5 +/- 1.0 and 7.0 +/- 0.1 mm/l, respectively, and neither glucose tolerance nor fasting plasma insulin differed between control vs transplant rats (p > 0.05). Two weeks of diabetes resulted in a body weight 82% of that of controls (240 +/- 5 vs 292 +/- 8 g, p < 0.05) and 5 subsequent weeks of diabetes further suppressed growth by an additional 12% (p < 0.05). Five weeks following islet transplantation, islet-transplant rats had regained lost weight and were not significantly different from control animals (274 +/- 19 vs 291 +/- 21 g, p > 0.05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)