Abstract
Summary
Diabetes has been produced in rabbits by the intravenous injection of alloxan. 1 , 2 The effectiveness of the repeated daily injections of doses as low as 50 mg per kg indicates that alloxan has a cumulative action or that a gradual extension of pancreatic injury takes place.
When alloxan was given to rabbits with alloxan diabetes no effect on the blood sugar was observed. This supports the favored hypothesis that the hypoglycemic phase of alloxan poisoning is due to the liberation of insulin from damaged cells.
Metabolic studies indicate that alloxan diabetes in rabbits corresponds to partial pancreatic diabetes. In this connection the factor of species is discussed.
Hydropic degeneration was observed in the islet tissue of 2 animals. This change has been attributed to the effect of hyperglycemia on beta cells which escaped destruction by alloxan.
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