Malignant Lymphoma in Spontaneously Diabetic Rats

Abstract

To the Editor: An outbred colony of non-obese Wistar rats (BB) with a high rate of spontaneous, apparently genetically determined diabetes mellitus has recently been described.^{1 , 2} The diabetes develops suddenly at two to four months of age with moderate to severe hyperglycemia, ketoacidosis and insulin deficiency associated with mononuclear infiltration of pancreatic islets and β-cell destruction resembling the lesions produced by encephalomyocarditis virus,³ insulin antibodies⁴ and streptozocin (streptozotocin).⁵ The process is lethal unless insulin therapy is instituted. This animal syndrome thus closely resembles human juvenile-onset diabetes mellitus. During long-term study of such diabetic rats the mortality rate was found to . . .