Altered cerebral glucose metabolism in an animal model of diabetes insipidus: A micro-PET study

The Brattleboro rat is an animal model of genetically induced central diabetes insipidus. These rats show cognitive and behavioral disorders, but no neurodegenerative disease has been observed. We studied brain glucose uptake, a marker of neuronal activity, in 6 Brattleboro rats, in comparison with 6 matched Long–Evans (LE) control rats. A group of 3 Brattleboro rats and 3 Long–Evans rats was studied in vivo and another group of animals was studied ex vivo. In vivo studies were performed using fluorodeoxyglucose labeled with fluorine 18 (18F-FDG) and a dedicated small-animal PET device. At 30 min and 60 min p.i., 18F-FDG uptake was significantly higher in the frontal cortex, striatum, thalamus and cerebellum of Brattleboro rats than in LE rats when measured by PET in vivo (p < 0.05), but only a trend towards higher values was found ex vivo. Our results show for the first time that brain glucose metabolism is modified in Brattleboro rats. This altered brain glucose metabolism in Brattleboro rats may be related to the observed cognitive and behavioral disorders. Functional analyses of brain metabolism are promising to investigate cognitive behavioral disturbances observed in Brattleboro rats and their link to diabetes insipidus.