Diabetic Autonomic Neuropathy in BB Rats and Effect of ARI Treatment on Heart-Rate Variability and Vagus Nerve Structure

Wei-Xian Zhang; Subrata Chakrabarti; Douglas A Greene; Anders A F Sima

doi:10.2337/diab.39.5.613

Original Articles

Diabetic Autonomic Neuropathy in BB Rats and Effect of ARI Treatment on Heart-Rate Variability and Vagus Nerve Structure

Wei-Xian Zhang,
Subrata Chakrabarti,
Douglas A Greene and
Anders A F Sima

Neuropathology Research Laboratory, Department of Pathology, University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Diabetes Research and Training Center, Medical Center, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Anders A.F. Sima, Neuropathology Research Laboratory, Department of Pathology, University of Manitoba, 770 Bannatyne Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3E 0W3, Canada.

Diabetes 1990 May; 39(5): 613-618. https://doi.org/10.2337/diab.39.5.613

Abstract

The preventive effect of the aldose reductase inhibitor (ARI) ponalrestat on heart-rate variability and the development of autonomie neuropathy in the vagus nerve was investigated in the spontaneously diabetic BB rat. ARI treatment completely prevented the characteristic decrease in heart-rate variability and axonal atrophy of the vagus nerve for 4 mo in hyperglycemic BB rats. After 6 mo of treatment, the preventive effect on heart-rate variability was partial, and the vagus nerve demonstrated an increase in regenerating myelinated and unmyelinated fibers. These data suggest that autonomie neuropathy involving the vagus nerve is metabolically induced by demonstrating that inhibition of the polyol pathway significantly delays the occurrence of functional and structural autonomie neuropathy despite the presence of hyperglycemia.