RESEARCH ARTICLE


Diabetic Neuropathy in Spontaneously Diabetic Torii Rat



Tomohiko Sasase*, Takeshi Ohta
Japan Tobacco Inc., Central Pharmaceutical Research Institute, Biological/Pharmacological Research Laboratories, 1-1 Murasaki-cho, Takatsuki, Osaka 569-1125, Japan.


© Sasase et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Japan Tobacco Inc., Central Pharmaceutical Research Institute, Biological/Pharmacological Research Laboratories, 1-1 Murasaki-cho, Takatsuki, Osaka 569-1125, Japan.Tel: +81 72 681 9700; Fax: +81 72 681 9722; E-mail: tomohiko.sasase@jt.com


Abstract

To aid in the study of diabetes and its complications, many diabetic animal models have been reported. Although most diabetic patients suffer type 2 diabetes, studies using type 2 diabetic animal models have been carried out less frequently. Spontaneously Diabetic Torii (SDT) rat, a non-obese type 2 diabetes model, shows neuropathies and severe ocular complications. Decreased nerve conduction velocity and thermal hypoalgesia were improved by insulin treatment, indicating that the peripheral neuropathies in SDT rats are caused by sustained hyperglycemia. Autonomic nerve dysfunctions such as decreased coefficients of variance of R-R intervals (CVR-R) in electrocardiogram, functional gastrointestinal disorders, and voiding dysfunction are also observed in SDT rats. Therefore, SDT rat is a useful diabetic animal model for studies of diabetic neuropathies in type 2 diabetes and development of new drugs and therapies for diabetic neuropathies.