Prediabetic Chinese hamsters born of two ketonurie diabetic parents were hyperphagic from birth. Carcass lipids and total solids were increased but plasma and pancreatic insulin were not, suggesting that hyperphagia was not due to hyperinsulinism, ttyperphagia was controlled by diet limitation of prediabetie pups. Diet limitation for the weaning period only did not alter development, of diabetes, but diet limitation for the first 150 days significantly reduced onset and severity. These 150 day diet-limited prediabeties were switched to nonrestricted feeding and subsequently developed mild diabetes. Prediabetie siblings, fed ad libitum, developed glucosuria and ketonuria, and died prematurely compared with diet-limited siblings. Prediabeties limited to a normal food intake for 30 months have remained essentially elinicM]y normal. The data strongly suggest that appetite control mechanisms are abnormal prior to clinical signs of diabetes in the prediabetic Chinese hamster and that control of hyperphagia will retard and ameliorate the course of diabetes.

Lack of obesity in the hyperphagic Chinese hamster is due to a normal calorie retention. This is related to a greater loss of carbohydrate calories via urine and feces in hyperphagic animals and a reduced absorption of dietary fat. --Various types of glueosurie animals were not adequately characterized by food consumption, blood sugar, quantitated glueosuria and blood sugar or plasma insulin levels after a glucose load. Plasma insulin as well as blood sugar levels appeared to be influenced by stress. Overnight food deprivation followed by refeeding may be a useful technique to evaluate maximal insulin secretion in vivo.

Summary. The following measurements were made in prediabetic chinese hamsters: food and water consumption, urine volume and body weight. The prediabetics ate significantly more food than nondiabetlc control hamsters. Although prediabeties ate 27~o more than controls, body weights of the two groups were the same. An unexpected finding was that prediabeties drank significantly less water than their nondiabetic controls. --Although preliminary, the data suggest that prediabetie ehinese hamsters have hyperphagia. It is possible that hyperphagia may contribute to the etiology of diabetes in this animal. L'apport alimentaire et la consommation d'eau chez le hamster ehinois prddiabdtique: une dtude prdliminaireRgsumd. Les besoins en nourriture et en eau, le volume urinaire et le poids corporel ont dtd ddterminds ehez le hamster chinois pr6diabdtique. L'ingestion de nourriture est sigTSficativement plus ~lev6e chez le hamster pr~dia-bdtique que ehez le non-diabdtique. Le poids eorporel reste identique daus les deux groupes, bien que les prddiabdtiques mangent 27~o de plus que les animaux normaux. Un r6sultat inattendu est celui que les aniraaux pr~diabdtiques boivent significativement moins d'eau que leurs eontr61es non-diab~tiques. --Tout en restant prdlirninaires, ces dormdes indiquent que les hamsters ehinois ont une hyperphagie. I1 est possible que cette derni~re puisse contribuer ~ l'dtiologie du diab~te chez eet animal. Nahrungs-und

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