Please explain what you did exactly, and what do you mean by ' blood glucose level became so low'. I have a lot of experience with induction of diabetes in rodents, so I am confident I can help you.

Md Hasibul Hasan,

Walekum Assalam.

If you continue to monitor your Alloxan treated hypoglycemic mice, you will find that in a day or two, they would become diabetic.

A transient hypoglycemia is possible as the bulk of beta cells rapidly die due to exposure to Alloxan, releasing all the contents of their secretory granules. Normally, the hyperinsulinemia resulting hypoglycemia is short-lived and well-tolerated by most rodents. However, if you have observed some animal death due to hypoglycemia, you should be able to minimize this loss by including 5-10% glucose in drinking water about 1-2hr post Alloxan treatment. Addition of glucose to drinking water will not be needed after ~12 hr (overnight). 

Dear Respected Sir Mr. Olankunle J Onaolapo & Mr. Tausif Islam,

Many Thanks for your valuable Answer . I have faced a problem that I have induced 150-170mg/kg Alloxan in Mice. But after 48 hours I have got that Random Blood  Glucose level below 10.00mmol/L , I have read from Publication that Animal is thought to be in Diabetes Mellitus condition above 11.00 mmol/L. I have use poultry feed for Mice feeding purpose . Please help me by your valuable Answer. I become very grateful for your any valuable Suggestion to me in that respected problem .

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Md Hasibul Hasan,

Perhaps you should start from the beginning - provide details exactly what you have done.

I am assuming that you injected Alloxan intraperitoneally. Do you have adequate experience in the procedure? A common mistake in the procedure by inexperienced people is to inject the material in wrong compartment, such as intestines or bladder etc. In such an event, you will not see full effect of the chemical.

As for the criterion for diabetes, investigators in animal research work use certain cutoff limits based on the nature of their study. If you are aiming for total destruction of beta cells (or very close to it), random blood glucose levels in animals fed ad libitum should be well over 500mg/dl 2-3d post treatment.

[I prefer use of Streptozotocin for consistent outcome.] 

Dear

 Alloxan-induced diabetes is one of he widely used model to induce Type I diabetes mellitus in the the experimental animals. Alloxan has been found to be selectively toxic to pancreatic beta cells as it preferentially accumulates in the beta cells as glucose

analogues. In addition, the cytotoxic action of alloxan is mediated mainly by the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS).

Alloxan has been used to induce experimental diabetes due to the selective destruction of the  insulin-producing pancreatic beta-islets.

The differents phases of diabetes induction:

-The first phase that comes into view within the first minutes after alloxan injection is transient hypoglycemic phase that lasts maximally for 30 minutes.This little hypoglycemic response has been noted to be the result of a transient stimulation of insulin secretion that was confirmed by an increase of the plasma insulin concentration.

-The 2nd phase appearing one hour after administration of alloxan leads to rise in blood glucose concentration. Moreover, the plasma insulin concentration has been noted to decrease at the same time. This is the first hyperglycemic phase after the first contact of the pancreatic beta cells with the toxin.

-The 3rd phase is again a hypoglycemic phase that is noted 4-8 hours after the alloxan injection, which lasts for several hours. The flooding of circulation with insulin occurs as a result of the alloxan-induced secretory granule and cell

membrane rupture resulting in severe transitional hypoglycemia.

Please more details in the attached file.

Hoping to be helpful

 Marius:

"Alloxan has been found to be selectively toxic to pancreatic beta cells as it preferentially accumulates in the beta cells as glucose analogues"

Does it? Any citations of published work in support of your statement will be appreciated.

My understanding is that hepatocytes have the identical glucose transporter (Glut2) to beta cells. The difference lies in the relative abilities of these two cells to deal with oxidative damage, the former is much better than the latter; hence the extensive (concentration-dependent) damage.

Dear Respected Sir, Tausif Alam,

I use IP route of administration of Alloxan to Mice to induce Diabetes . Are their any easy & possible route for Alloxan Administration ?  I think sir , I am now in a initial stage of Learning , you may be right , Please explain how can I easily induce DM in Mice by using Alloxan .. I am very glad sir , if you help me at this point by any important Suggestion.

Inducing diabetes in mice with alloxan would involve

1.ensuring the that the alloxan is weighed accurately using an analytical balance; slight changes in dose may determine the success of induction or not

2. dose to be administered most be calculated correctly in mg/kg (individual animal weights and not mean weight should be used) and to converted injection volume.

3.Another important component is the diluent, I would suggest the use of ice cold saline to ensure chemical stability until it is injected and absorbed

4. Animals must be fasted overnight before induxtion. Ensure that the injection is intraperitoneal and not intraluminal or intramuscular

5. after induction administer glucose solution (20 ml/kg) orally to prevent hypoglycaemia, you may need to repeat the glucose solution if mice refuse to eat.

6. The cut off point for declaring an animal diabetic is determined by age younger mice are more resistant to either alloxan or streptozocin although they tend to bear the toxicities resulting in less mortality compared to older mice, another determinant is the study type, However most labs use blood glucose greater than or equal to 11 mmol/l for adolescent mice or rats and  greater than or equal to 18 mmol/l for older animals.

Induction failure is higher with alloxan than STZ . If it occurs go over your protocol and induce a different set of animals 

I hope this helps

Dear, 

We used Alloxan monohydrate in dose of 60 mg/kg body weight for induction of diabetes in mice. Seven days after mice were tested for hyperglycemia. Mice were 2.5-3.5 months of age. That system was working at us. Maybe this could  help.