Honors Program

Honors in Biology

Date of Award

5-2011

Thesis Professor(s)

Edward Onyango, Edith Seier

Thesis Professor Department

Health Sciences

Thesis Reader(s)

Effiong Otukonyong, Burl Williams

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of stress on the onset of chemically-induced diabetes mellitus in mice. Sixty male ICR mice were randomly divided into 6 groups of 10 mice. A factorial arrangement of 2 factors (streptozotocin (STZ) and stress) was used to produce 6 treatments. Three levels of STZ (0, 25 and 50 mg/kg bodyweight) and 2 levels of stress (stress and no-stress) were used. Stressed groups were exposed to restraint stress 6 hours daily for 18 days. Mice bodyweight, feed consumption and blood glucose levels were recorded regularly during the study period. At the end of the study period, all mice were euthanized and blood was collected and centrifuged to obtain serum for a corticosterone assay. The highest corticosterone levels occurred in the stressed mice that received the highest dose of STZ. There was no difference in corticosterone levels of the 0 STZ stress and no-stress groups. STZ was the significant factor in corticosterone level. The no-stress mice receiving the highest level of STZ showed the greatest increase in glucose levels, while the overall glucose levels of the other groups remained relatively constant. The findings suggest that restraint stress may delay the onset of chemically-induced diabetes mellitus in mice.

Document Type

Honors Thesis - Open Access

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

Included in

Biology Commons

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