Neonatal Stimulation of β-cells Reduces the Incidence and Delays the Onset of Diabetes in a Barrier-protected Breeding Colony of BB Rats

Abstract

The off-spring in a barrier maintained colony of spontaneously type 1 diabetic BB/Wor/Mol-BB rats was treated with a daily injection of either saline, forskolin, arginine, glucose or both glucose and arginine for the first six days after birth. The incidence was reduced from 88% to 72% by the neonatal stimulation with arginine and glucose in combination, which also delayed the onset time from 76.0 +/- 2.2 days to 88.1 +/- 2.3 days. No such effect was observed after stimulation with either one of the compounds. Neonatal stimulation with forskolin also delayed the onset to 87.9 +/- 3.8 days, however without reducing the incidence. A higher incidence of diabetes was observed in the barrier-protected rats taking part in this study than in an earlier study using BB rats of the same origin, but kept under conventional conditions.

Gluten-Free Diet Only during Pregnancy Efficiently Prevents Diabetes in NOD Mouse Offspring

“…This would delay islet maturation in the fetuses and thus not expose beta cell antigens before the thymus barrier closes. In agreement with this, neonatal glucose injections reduce the incidence of the disease, probably by increasing beta cell antigen expression and tolerance induction [22]. A human analogue to this mechanism is children of diabetic mothers that experience high glucose values in utero and develop diabetes at a lower incidence compared to children of diabetic fathers [23].…”