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THE INFLUENCE OF STREPTOZOTOCIN DIABETES AND METFORMIN ON ERYTHROCYTE VOLUME AND ON THE MEMBRANE POTENTIAL AND THE CONTRACTILE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EXTENSOR DIGITORUM LONGUS AND SOLEUS MUSCLES IN RATS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2001

MICHELLE McGUIRE  and
MARY MacDERMOTT
MICHELLE McGUIRE
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, 123 St Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland
MARY MacDERMOTT
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, 123 St Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland
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Abstract

The effects of streptozotocin (STZ) diabetes and the antihyperglycaemic agent metformin on the contractile characteristics of the limb skeletal muscles and on erythrocyte volume were examined in rats. After 8 weeks of diabetes, the tetanic tension of the extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscle decreased and the half-relaxation time of the soleus muscle increased. Endurance decreased in both muscles. Metformin treatment of the diabetic rats did not prevent the development of these contractile changes. Diabetes induced depolarisation in the EDL and soleus muscles. Following exposure to insulin, both muscles repolarised. Metformin treatment of control rats induced depolarisation in the EDL and soleus muscles, but in the depolarised EDL and soleus muscles of the diabetic rats metformin treatment caused no further depolarisation. The muscles of metformin-treated control and diabetic rats hyperpolarised in the presence of insulin. Diabetes caused an increase in the volume of the blood erythrocytes. This was prevented by metformin treatment.

Type
Research Article
Information
Experimental Physiology , Volume 84 , Issue 6 , November 1999 , pp. 1051 - 1058
Copyright
© The Physiological Society 1999

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