Sodium and its relation to alloxan diabetes and glutathione.

An investigation into the effect of sodium on alloxan diabetes was prompted by the following observations. The beneficial effect of sodium chloride for diabetic persons was demonstrated by McQuarrie et al. (1). They found that an increased intake of sodium chloride resulted in a decrease in the fasting level of blood sugar and in glycosuria. Sayers et al. (2) showed that the low glucose tolerance of the Yale strain of rats was improved by a simultaneous injection of sodium chloride. Lewis et al. (3) confirmed these results when rats fed a high sodium chloride ration were shown to possess a greater glucose tolerance. In both cases the liver glycogen was found to be increased when sodium chloride was supplied. Since sodium chloride improved the state of the diabetic, the possibility that the severity of alloxan diabetes would be increased by a lack of sodium became apparent. A preliminary experiment, in which sodium-deficient rats were injected with alloxan, indicated that sodium had a pronounced effect on the induction of this type of diabetes. Therefore, a more detailed study was made on the effect df sodium and potassium upon the induction of alloxan diabetes. The effect of potassium was studied, since it had been reported antagonistic to sodium (1, 3).