Induction of diabetes by cumulative environmental insults from viruses and chemicals

Abstract

When strains of mice normally resistant to encephalomyocarditis virus (EMC)-induced diabetes were first treated with sub-diabetogenic doses of streptozotocin, then infected with EMC, diabetes developed. When mice were infected with coxsackieviruses B3 and B5, which ordinarily produce little if any, .beta.-cell damage, diabetes developed if the mice were first treated with sub-diabetogenic doses of streptozotocin. Diabetes may result from cumulative .beta.-cell damage induced by sequential environmental insults.