ABSTRACT
The iron–diabetes hypothesis has been supported by a number of epidemiological studies showing that body iron deposits are positively associated with blood glucose levels. The underlying pathological interactions between iron and glucose homeostasis are not well understood. A recent study used C57BL/6 mice that were injected with a high dose of iron to establish an iron overload mouse model. However, in Indonesia, most of the experiments involving mouse models use the Balb/c strain instead of C57BL/6. The objective of this study was to validate the effects of iron overload in Balb/c mice. Mice were intraperitoneally injected with iron dextran (10 mg/μL per day, iron overload group). Fasting blood glucose level, body weight, and liver weight were measured after 7 days of treatment. After 7 days, only six out of 12 mice survived. The body weights of the iron overload group were 18.5% lower than that of the control group, with liver enlargement and lower blood glucose levels. In conclusion, our study indicated that Balb/c mice are intolerant to excessive amounts of iron.
