Influence of physical restraint on the onset of experimentally induced diabetes mellitus

Abstract

The role of intermittent repeated physical restraint on the onset of diabetes mellitus (DM) was in-vestigated in this study. The study compared the onset of DM in mice dosed with streptozotocin (STZ), a DM-inducing drug, with immediate subsequent exposure to either physical restraint stress or non- exposure to the stress. Sixty mice were randomly assigned to 6 equal groups: 0 mg kg-1 STZ with no stress, 0 mg kg-1 STZ with stress, 25 mg kg-1 STZ with no stress, 25 mg kg-1 STZ with stress, 50 mg kg-1 STZ with no stress, 50 mg kg-1 STZ with stress. Blood glucose, body weight and food consumption were regularly determined during the study. On day18, mice were killed and blood for corticosterone determination was collected. Increase in STZ dosage or physical restraint stress lowered bodyweight on days 4-18 (P<0.05). Increasing STZ dosage elevated the blood glu-cose on day7-18 (P<0.05). Restraint lowered blood glucose on day 11-18 (P<0.05). Interaction be-tween both factors was significant on day11-18 (P<0.05). Nine out of 10 of the 50 mg kg-1 STZ no-stress mice and 2 out of 10 of the 50 mg kg-1 STZ stress mice developed DM. Physical restraint was a more important predictor for whether a mouse would have been diabetic or not. Physical restraint delayed the onset of diabetes mellitus.Keywords: Diabetes mellitus; physical exertion; restraint stress; streptozotocin