RESUMEN
Objective To establish a rat model of cardiac insufficiency complicated with diabetes mellitus (DM), and to meet the needs of clinical and laboratory studies. Methods Forty-five male specific pathogen free (SPF) rats were ran-domly divided into three groups:normal control group (A, n=10 ), coarctation of the aorta (AAC) group (B, n=10), AAC+DM group (C, n=25). The model of cardiac insufficiency with abdominal aortic constriction was establish in B and C groups. Af-ter two months of AAC, rats of group C were randomly divided into five subgroups and treated with different doses of strepto-zotocin (STZ) respectively(40, 45, 50, 55 and 60 mg/kg). The dynamic changes of general condition and weights were ob-served during the process of experiment. The blood glucose levels of 72 h and 4 week after STZ injection were detected. The echocardiograph and cardiac pathology changes were evaluated after 1 month of STZ injection. Results The general data in-cluding blood glucose levels, echocardiographic findings and myocardial tissue microscopic morphology were compared be-tween different doses of STZ groups. The 45 mg/kg STZ was considered for more stable model of cardiac dysfunction compli-cated with diabetes mellitus. Conclusion The rat model of cardiac insufficiency complicated with diabetes mellitus is estab-lished by single dose injection of 45 mg/kg STZ after two-month AAC, which is a simple, reliable and high stability method.