EFFECT OF DIETHYLDITHIOCARBAMATE AND OTHER AGENTS ON MICE WITH THE OBESEHYPERGLYCEMIC SYNDROME¹^,²

Abstract

Essential characteristics of the obese hyperglycemic syndrome of mice have been described in previous reports (Mayer et al., 1952, 1953; Bleisch, Mayer and Dickie, 1952; Guggenheim and Mayer, 1952, etc.). The present report deals essentially with the nature of the hyperglycemia and suggests a possible endocrine origin for the whole syndrome. In early studies (e.g. Mayer, Bates and Dickie, 1951, Mayer, et al., 1953) all animals manifesting the obese-hyperglycemic gene showed high blood glucose levels (always over 180 mg. % after 3 months of age, generally of the order of 300 mg. % after 4 months). Recently, with the accelerated production of these animals from a genetically heterogeneous stock, a certain proportion of obese animals between 3 and 8 months old were observed to have normal blood glucose levels associated with all usual characteristics of the obese hyperglycemic syndrome, including hypercholesterolemia. This suggested either that the diabetes occurred genetically independently of the obesity or, as was more likely, that a genetic factor