RESUMO
Background: hypoglycemia is the most common complication of type-I diabetes. In diabetic patients, the common cause of hypoglycemia is absolute or relative increase in plasma insulin level. Sometimes overnight fasting or emission of one meal decrease blood glucose. But fasting-induced hypoglycemia in type-I diabetes without insulin consumption has been not reported yet. The aim of this study is the effects of fasting on blood glucose in type-I diabetic rats
Materials and methods: 16 male wistar rats with average weight 250 +/- 25 grams were used in this study. The rats were divided into control and diabetic groups. Rats were diabetized by IP injection of streptozocine [60 mg/kg]. All rats were fasted for 24 hours. During fasting, the blood glucose was measured for interval of 3 hours
Results: in diabetic groups, blood glucose decreased from 546mg/kg at the bigining to 24mg/kg at the end of experiment and blood glucose in control groups, declined from 92mg/kg to 52mg/kg after 24 hours. However the most slope reduction of FBS in both groups was obtained six hours after fasting
Conclusion: it seems the prolonged fasting in type-I diabetic rats produces sever hypoglycemia [after 6-9 hours] even without insulin consumption. Hence diabetic patients can not undergo prolonged fasting more than 6 hours and achieve hypoglycemia