Abstract: AIM: To determine the effect of insulin treatment on oral glucose metabolism in diabetic mice. METHODS: Diabetic mouse model was induced by alloxan and the diabetic mice were given [¹⁴C] glucose by gastric gavage, and then treated with insulin intraperitoneally(IP)or subcutaneously(SC).Diabetic control and the normal control group did not receive any insulin treatment. Glucose and radioactivity in the tail vein blood were detected continually.Mice were sacrificed after 2 hours and radioactivities of the heart, liver and kidney were measured. RESULTS: After given [¹⁴C] glucose by gastric gavage for 2 hours, blood glucose of diabetic control mice was in the hyperglycemic range, but there were no differences among diabetic control, the normal control and the insulin treated diabetic mice(IP, SC)in terms of the radioactivities in the blood.50% of diabetic mice treated with insulin subcutaneously(SC)displayed euglycemia.2 hours after given [¹⁴C] glucose, the radioactivities in liver and kidney of diabetic control were 4 times and 1.5 times that of the normal control separately.The radioactivities in the heart of diabetic control decreased by 70% in comparison with that of the normal control.The radioactivities in liver, kidney and heart of intraperitoneal insulin treated mice (IP)were equal to those in normal mice.The radioactivities in liver and kidney of subcutaneous insulin treated mice with euglycemia (SC-1)were higher than those of the normal control.There was no difference between subcutaneous insulin treated mice with hypoglycemia(SC-2)and the normal control in the radioactivities in liver and kidney.The radioactivity in heart of SC-2 mice group was still lower than that of the normal control. CONCLUSION: These finding indicates that subcutaneous insulin administration, which achieved euglycemia, can not normalize oral glucose metabolism.

Key words: diabetes mellitus, metabolism, insulin, celiac injection, alloxan