<p>This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</p> <p>The aim of the study was to investigate whether
various beta-cell stimulatory drugs, given neonatally,
influence the incidence of diabetes in BB rats.
Newborn BB rats were treated twice daily for 6 days
and diabetes development was observed during the
following 200-day study period. Compared to a
diabetes incidence of 63.8% in 163 control BB rats
which received saline or were untreated, the percentage
of experimental BB rats that developed diabetes
was as follows in the different subgroups: arginineglucose:
47% (<italic>n</italic>= 73, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.02); glucagon: 37% (<italic>n</italic> =
93, <italic>p</italic> &lt;  0.0001); tolbutamide-glucose: 36% (<italic>n</italic> = 58,
<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.0005); and theophylline-glucose: 39% (<italic>n</italic> = 41,
<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.005). A long-term arginine-glucose treatment
was not superior to the shorter neonatal treatment.
Histological examination revealed a higher degree of
insulitis in diabetic than in non-diabetic animals
but no difference according to the kind of treatment
was observed. Finally, we found that the diabetes
incidence in BB rats was higher in the first litter
compared to subsequent litters (<italic>p</italic> = 0.04). Thus,
neonatal treatment with various beta-cell stimulatory
agents reduces diabetes incidence in BB rats.
The theory behind the study, that the treatment
accelerates beta-cell maturation leading to increased
immunological tolerance towards beta cells, is
discussed.</p>
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Int J Exp Diabetes Res. 2000; 1(1):1-8