Summary
The Zucker fatty rat (fa/fa; ZR) is considered as a model for pre-diabetes, as characterised by a genetic defect in the leptin receptor, which results in hyperphagia, insulin resistance, hyperinsulinaemia, hyperlipoproteinaemia, and obesity. These animals become glucose intolerant but do not develop type 2 diabetes. As a consequence of increased adiposity and insulin resistance, the endocrine pancreas of ZR undergoes adaptive and compensatory changes. Measurements of the time course of the pathological changes by the histological analysis of the pancreatic islet in combination with metabolic parameters are an effective way to reveal disease progression. A loss in glucose tolerance occurs in ZR by 10 weeks of age and progressively worsens by 19 weeks of age. This process is accompanied by impaired islet histology, changes of β-cell mass, and impaired islet function. The early expression of insulin resistance and glucose intolerance in ZR results in morphological and functional changes of pancreatic islets despite their capability to maintain normoglycaemia.
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Acknowledgement
The authors are grateful to Silke Lucke (PhD) and Klaus-Dieter Kohnert (PhD, MD) for their advice and for sharing their expertise. Our special thanks go to Peter Heinke (MSc.) for his excellent and competent support for mathematical and statistical evaluations. We acknowledge the contributions of Dieter Schröder (PhD) and Sabine Berg (MSc.). We thank Dr. Klaus-Dieter Kohnert for a critical review of the manuscript, Mrs. Cordula Rudolph and Mrs. Marlies Behm for excellent technical assistance.
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Augstein, P., Salzsieder, E. (2009). Morphology of Pancreatic Islets: A Time Course of Pre-diabetes in Zucker Fatty Rats. In: Stocker, C. (eds) Type 2 Diabetes. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 560. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-448-3_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-448-3_12
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