Diabetic rats show more resistance to neuromuscular blockade induced by aminoglycoside antibiotics.

1. Neuromuscular blocking effect of gentamicin and neomycin evaluated in phrenic-nerve hemidiaphragm preparation in normal and diabetic rats and IC50 of both drugs determined from LDR curves. 2. IC50 of gentamicin was 0.91 +/- 0.05 and 1.67 +/- 0.08 mmol.l-1 for normal and diabetic rats respectively. 3. IC50 of neomycin was 0.42 +/- 0.02 and 0.61 +/- 0.06 mmol.l-1 for normal and diabetic rats respectively. 4. The results show diabetic rats are more resistant to neuromuscular blocking action of aminoglycoside antibiotics (AGs). 5. Replacement of sodium by lithium (1.5 and 5 mmol.l-1) in the media, reduced this effect of aminoglycosides (AGs) significantly. 6. It appears that the prevention of AGs induced-neuromuscular blockade by lithium is not significantly different in both groups.