Hypoglycemia Induced by Sodium Selenite.

Abstract

Since the discovery of insulin (F. G. Banting and C. H. Best 1 ), a number of organic compounds, such as guanidine (Collip, 2 Dubin and Corbitt 3 ), adenine sulphate and xanthine (Dubin and Corbitt 3 ), ergotamine (Lesser and Zipf 4 ), 2 thio, 4 or 5 amino-ethylglyoxaline, a sulphur derivative of histidine (MacDonagh 5 ), choline (Junkersdorf and Kohl 6 ), and dihydroxyacetone (Rabinowitch, 7 Mason 8 ), have been found to possess the property of lowering blood sugar. As for inorganic compounds, potassium chloride, according to Kyelin and Engel, 9 induces a slight fall in blood sugar, while calcium chloride, according to Barath, 10 causes a slight rise. Elias, Popescu-Inotesti and Radoslav 11 report a fall in blood sugar in rabbits and dogs induced by both mono and disodium phosphate. Brugsch and Horsters 12 observe that sodium phosphite also diminishes blood sugar.

We wish to report another inorganic compound, sodium selenite, Na₂SeO₃, that induces hypoglycemia. Although selenium is believed to behave pharmacologically like arsenic, it has been shown by Van Dyke 13 that sodium arsenite produces hyperglycemia.

The extent of the hypoglycemia induced by sodium selenite was determined in rabbits that received no food except water for a period of 18 to 24 hours prior to injection of the selenium compound. Blood sugar was determined by the method of Shaffer and Hartmann. 14 The dose administered subcutaneously was 2.5 to 7 mg. per kilo. The minimal lethal dose proved to be 4 mg. per kilo on a diet low in carbohydrate.

The degree of hypoglycemia was in direct proportion to the quantity of the selenium salt injected. Thus, with a small dose, 2.5 mg. per kilo, the normal blood sugar of the animal remained unchanged for 14 hours, when it dropped from 0.118 per cent to 0.085 per cent.