The metabolic and immunological effects of cyclosporin given to prevent diabetes in BB rats were examined. Diabetes-prone (BBdp) and normal (BBn) BB rats received either oral cyclosporin (10 mg · kg−1 · day−1 or its vehicle from age 30-150 days. Six of 21 (29%) vehicle-treated rats became glycosuric, with hyperglycemia, weight loss, and unremitting insulin requirements, and showed destruction of islet β-cells. Five of 24 (21%) cyclosporin-treated rats became glycosuric, but none demonstrated weight loss, all required insulin only intermittently after onset, and all showed persistence of islet β-cells. Cyclosporin induced hypoinsulinemic glucose intolerance in BBn rats.
Cyclosporin inhibited the normal rise with age of peripheral blood lymphocyte cell numbers, identified with monoclonal antibodies. OX19+ (pan-T) and W3/25+ helper T-lymphocytes were affected, and there was an increase in the large W3/13+ OX19− population characteristic of BBdp rats; in addition, this subset appeared in BBn rats. Cyclosporin also caused the appearance and/or increase in both BBdp and BBn rats of W3/25+OX19− and OX8+ OX19− subsets. Suppressor/cytotoxic (OX8+) T-lymphocytes and la+ cells were less affected.
The incidence of hyperglycemia and glycosuria was therefore unaltered by cyclosporin, although the diabetic syndrome was milder. BBn rats receiving cyclosporin showed glucose intolerance, suggesting that in BBdp rats, the net effects of immunosuppression on β-cell destruction may have been counterbalanced by the direct effect on the same cells. The attenuation of diabetes in BBdp rats occurred through further immunosuppression rather than by correction of its preexisting immunodeficiency.
