Mechanism of Abnormal Oral Glucose Tolerance of Genetically Obese fa/fa Rats

The genetically obese fa/fa rat is glucose intolerant when tested in a conscious state after the spontaneous ingestion of a glucose solution. The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism(s) underlying the abnormal oral glucose tolerance test of obese animals with the non-steady-state measurement of glucose turnover proposed by Steele et al. in 1968. Our results show that the total rate of glucose appearance is enhanced in obese compared with lean animals. This abnormality is not due to an increased gut glucose absorption but to a lack of suppression and even a transient stimulation of hepatic glucose production after the ingestion of glucose. The rate of glucose utilization by the obese animals is somewhat increased compared with controls or unchanged when expressed as glucose metabolic clearance rate, thus excluding this parameter from the factors contributing to the observed glucose intolerance. The results obtained with genetically obese rats agree with those reported for type II diabetes in humans. The observed defect of the obese group could be related to an abnormal regulation of insulin counterregulatory hormone(s) or of hepatic innervation as well as to other defects of hepatic glycogen handling.