Magnesium supplementation reduces the development of diabetes in a
rat model of spontaneous niddm.
Balon, Thomas W., Jia-Li Gu, Yoshiharu Tokuyama, Arnie P. Jasman, and
Jerry L. Nadler.
Department of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, City of Hope
National Medical Center, Duarte, CA 91010; Department of Medicine,
The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637
APStracts 2:0110E, 1995.
We examined the effects of a magnesium-supplemented (Mg-S) diet in the
male obese Zucker diabetic fatty rat, a model of non-insulin
-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). Obese rats were maintained on
either a (0.20% magnesium) control or (1% magnesium) magnesium
supplemented (Mg-S) diet for 6 weeks beginning at 6 weeks of age. The
rats maintained on the Mg-S diet had markedly lower fasting and fed
-state blood glucose concentrations, and an improved glucose disposal.
By 12 weeks of age, all of the 8 animals on the control diet became
diabetic, whereas diabetes developed in only 1 of 8 animals on the
Mg-S diet. Insulin and C-peptide concentrations, in addition to
pancreatic GLUT-2 and insulin mRNA expression were higher in the male
obese Mg-S rats as compared to their control-fed counterparts. A
subgroup of rats on the control diet with established diabetes were
switched to a Mg-S diet for an additional 4 weeks. The Mg-S diet did
not reverse diabetes once already established. These data indicate
that an increased dietary magnesium intake in male obese rats
prevents deterioration of glucose tolerance thus delaying the
development of spontaneous NIDDM.
Received 6 February 1995; accepted in final form 11 May 1995.
APS Manuscript Number E50-5.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Endocrinol. Metab.).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 26 May 1995.