Effects of Moderate Intensity Physical Training in Neonatal Alloxan-Administered Rats

Newborn rats (6 days old) received alloxan intraperitoneally (A=250 mg/kg b.w). Rats injected with vehicle (citrate buffer) were used as controls (C). After weaning, half of the animals were submitted to 1 hour/day, 5 days/week swimming and with supporting overload of 5% b.w. At 28 days, no significant differences were found among the groups in fasting glycemia and insulinemia. At 60 days, the fasting glycemia (30 min after oral glucose administration) was higher in alloxan than in controls groups and lower in the alloxan group submitted to training than in the correspondent sedentary group. The glucose tolerance of the alloxan rats was reduced in comparison to controls, both at 28 and 60 days, since the area under the blood glucose curve during the OGTT was higher in the alloxan than in the control. No difference was found among the groups both at 28 and 60 days in the HOMA index. However, a slight reduction was observed in the values of the trained groups suggesting slightly increased insulin sensitivity in the animals. These results suggest that this diabetes mellitus animal model presents interesting characteristics for the study of the role of the physical exercise in diabetes outcome.