BASAL OXYGEN CONSUMPTION OF HEREDITARILY OBESE AND DIABETIC MICE

Abstract

PREVIOUS publications have described certain metabolic characteristics of a strain of mice (Obob) presenting a high proportion of hereditarily obese individuals. The obesity and associated abnormalities appears to be a simple Mendelian recessive trait. It has been shown (Mayer et al., 1951) that, when allowed a free choice of nutrients, obese individuals ate 25 per cent more calories than the non-obese siblings; the proportion of calories derived from fat, protein and carbohydrate differed markedly between obese and non-obese animals, with the obese selecting proportionately far less carbohydrate, less protein and almost twice as much fat than did the non-obese. The obese animals were found to exhibit diabetes mellitus (Mayer, Bates, and Dickie, 1951), with blood sugar levels of fed individuals ranging up to 350 mg. per cent; the glucosuria is of the order of 3 g. per cent. Furthermore, the obese animals present a striking insulin resistance, doses of 400 I.U. of insulin per Kg. leaving them unaffected.