Diabetes alters the blood glucose response to ketamine in streptozotocin-diabetic rats.

Ketamine is a commonly used short-acting anesthetic and recently attempted to treat pain which is a complication of diabetes. In this study we investigated the effect of ketamine on glucose levels of normal rats and diabetic rats. The results showed that no significance between the glucose levels in ketamine treatment group and saline treatment group at all time points was observed in normal rats. Ketamine did not produce hyperglycemia in normal fasted rats. However, ketamine dose dependently elevated glucose in diabetic rats from 80 mg/kg to 120 mg/kg at 1 hour after injection. The glucose did not return to the levels before treatment in streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats. Insulin revealed a powerful potency in decreasing glucose levels in diabetic rats. Ketamine did not induce acute hyperglycemia any more after diabetic rats pretreated with insulin. Serum corticosterone was significantly increased in all treatment groups including saline group after 1 hour treatment compared with baseline values. Then the corticosterone declined in both saline treatment groups. However, ketamine induced a more significant increase in corticosterone at 1 hour after injection compared with that of saline control group of diabetic rats. And no decline trend of corticosterone was observed after ketamine treatment 2 hours. Insulin did not reduce the elevated corticosterone level induced by ketamine either. The results suggested that the diabetic rats had a risk of hyperglycaemia when they were treated with ketamine. Pretreatment with insulin is a good symptomatic treatment for hyperglycaemia induced by ketamine.