Combination of high-fat/high-fructose diet and low-dose streptozotocin to model long-term type-2 diabetes complications

Sci Rep. 2018 Jan 11;8(1):424. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-18896-5.

Abstract

The epidemic of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is fueled by added fructose consumption. Here, we thus combined high-fat/high-fructose diet, with multiple low-dose injections of streptozotocin (HF/HF/Stz) to emulate the long-term complications of T2DM. HF/HF/Stz rats, monitored over 56 weeks, exhibited metabolic dysfunctions associated with the different stages of the T2DM disease progression in humans: an early prediabetic phase characterized by an hyperinsulinemic period with modest dysglycemia, followed by a late stage of T2DM with frank hyperglycemia, normalization of insulinemia, marked dyslipidemia, hepatic fibrosis and pancreatic β-cell failure. Histopathological analyses combined to [18F]-FDG PET imaging further demonstrated the presence of several end-organ long-term complications, including reduction in myocardial glucose utilization, renal dysfunction as well as microvascular neuropathy and retinopathy. We also provide for the first time a comprehensive µ-PET whole brain imaging of the changes in glucose metabolic activity within discrete cerebral regions in HF/HF/Stz diabetic rats. Altogether, we developed and characterized a unique non-genetic preclinical model of T2DM adapted to the current diet and lifestyle that recapitulates the major metabolic features of the disease progression, from insulin resistance to pancreatic β-cell dysfunction, and closely mimicking the target-organ damage occurring in type 2 diabetic patients at advanced stages.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Diabetes Complications / diagnostic imaging*
  • Diabetes Complications / metabolism
  • Diabetes Complications / pathology
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental / complications*
  • Diet, High-Fat / adverse effects*
  • Disease Progression
  • Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 / metabolism
  • Fructose / adverse effects*
  • Humans
  • Insulin Resistance
  • Male
  • Positron-Emission Tomography
  • Prediabetic State / diagnosis
  • Rats
  • Streptozocin

Substances

  • Fluorodeoxyglucose F18
  • Fructose
  • Streptozocin

Grants and funding