Cerebral abnormalities in diabetes mellitus: An ultrastructural study of the brain in early onset diabetes mellitus in the chinese hamster

Summary Brains of diabetic chinese hamsters have been compared with those of normal controls of the same age and sex. By electron microscopy vascular lesions were prominent, especially thickening and reduplication of basement membranes. Neurons were markedly altered with 1. Megamitochondria in dendrites, 2. densely fibrillar axoplasm, 3. degenerating axons and dendrites, 4. focal myelin degradation and 5. degeneration of synaptic endings on nerve cell stroma.This work was supported in part by a grant (NB 07887) from the Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland and by a grant from the Upjohn Company.