Effect of sucrose and Acarbose feeding on the development of streptozotocin-induced diabetes in the rat.

The effects of sucrose and Acarbose (alpha-glucosidase inhibitor) feeding on the development of diabetes were studied in streptozotocin-treated rats. Rats were raised on four different dietary regimens, viz, a sucrose diet (46% of the total weight in the form of sucrose, 24% as starch), a starch diet (70% as starch), a standard diet (laboratory chow: Oriental Yeast Co.) or an Acarbose diet (a standard diet containing 75 mg Acarbose/100g diet) for a week followed by an intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (70 mg/kg). Development of diabetes was determined by urinary and blood glucose levels (more than 250 mg/dl). The incidence of diabetes in the groups of rats fed on sucrose, starch, standard, and Acarbose diets was 100%, 80%, 70% and 47.6%, respectively. The development of diabetes was accelerated by sucrose feeding and depressed by Acarbose feeding. There was mild diabetes in rats fed on Acarbose diet. The sucrose feeding caused a marked increase of disaccharidase activities in the proximal part of the intestine and in the apical part of the villus-crypt gradient of epithelial cells. The Acarbose feeding caused a significant decrease of disaccharidase activities. The changes in protein content of the sucrase-isomaltase complex appeared to be in parallel with those of disaccharidase activities. These results suggest that intestinal disaccharidase activities are involved in the development of experimental diabetes induced by streptozotocin.