Fast anterograde axonal transport of choline-containing lipids in rats with experimental diabetes

This study was designed to measure the velocity of axonal transport of choline-containing lipids in sensory and motoneurones of control rats and rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes of 3 weeks duration. An additional experiment was performed in which nerves from control and diabetic rats were maintained in vitro during the period between injection of isotope in the nerve cell body region and arrest of transport. This was done to preclude the effects of temperature differences between controls and diabetics. None of these experiments revealed defects of velocity of fast orthograde transport of labelled lipids in the diabetic rats. The results indicate that short-term experimental diabetes has no effect on the velocity of fast anterograde axonal transport of choline-containing lipids. The findings are discussed in relation to similar studies on the fast anterograde axonal transport of proteins.