Abstract: Objective: The present study aims at determining the stability of a popular type 2 diabetes rat model induced by a high-fat diet combined with a low-dose streptozotocin injection. Methods: Wistar rats were fed with a high-fat diet for 8 weeks followed by a one-time injection of 25 or 35 mg/kg streptozotocin to induce type 2 diabetes. Then the diabetic rats were fed with regular diet/high-fat diet for 4 weeks. Changes in biochemical parameters were monitored during the 4 weeks. Results: All the rats developed more severe dyslipidemia and hepatic dysfunction after streptozotocin injection. The features of 35 mg/kg streptozotocin rats more resembled type 1 diabetes with decreased body weight and blood insulin. Rats with 25 mg/kg streptozotocin followed by normal diet feeding showed normalized blood glucose level and pancreatic structure, indicating that normal diet might help recovery from certain symptoms of type 2 diabetes. In comparison, diabetic rats fed with high-fat diet presented decreased but relatively stable blood glucose level, and this was significantly higher than that of the control group (P<0.05). Conclusions: This model easily recovers with normal diet feeding. A high-fat diet is suggested as the background diet in future pharmacological studies using this model.

Key words: High-fat diet; Stability; Streptozotocin; Type 2 diabetes mellitus

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