Low catalase activity is associated with diabetes caused by alloxan

Abstract

Catalase has a predominant role in protecting oxidative damage caused with hydrogen peroxide. No catalase activity in blood is acatalasemia and low activity is hypocatalasemia. As a higher incidence of diabetes mellitus was shown in Hangarian acatalasemic and hypocatalasemic patients, we examined whether low catalase activity is associated with diabetes. When the blood glucose concentration of acatalasemic mice (3% activity of normal mice) was compared with normal mice, no significant difference was seen. To normal and acatalasemic mice, alloxan (200 mg/kg of body weight) was intraperitoneally administrated. Blood glucose concentration of the acatalasemic mice became less stable than that of normal mice. With a glucose tolerance test (2.0 g/kg), blood glucose concentration of the acatalasemic mice is significantly higher than that of normal mice. And then, these mice were killed and the pancreatic tissues were stained with hematoxylin and eosin. No significant difference of numbers of β‐cells in islet of langerhans of the normal mice was seen between administration of alloxan and that of saline. However, numbers of β‐cells in the acatalasemic mice decreased by about 20% (P<0.005). As alloxan generates hydrogen peroxide, these results indicate that catalase protects pancreatic β‐cells from the damage with hydrogen peroxide and suggest that lower catalase activity develops higher incidence of diabetes.