Foods that contain carbohydrate have the greatest effect on blood glucose concentrations compared to foods that contain protein and fat. The method of carbohydrate counting that estimating the carbohydrate content of a meal and optimizing the insulin dose controls postprandial hyperglycemia in human diabetes patients. The purpose of this study was to the effects of carbohydrate quantity on postprandial plasma glucose and insulin requirement in dogs with diabetes mellitus（DM）. DM dogs were fed on a diet with the control diet（moderate carbohydrate）and the high-carbohydrate diet（control diet＋corn starch）, and then maintained normoglycemic status by connecting to an artificial pancreas apparatus. Insulin requirements of the high-carbohydrate diet were higher than that control diet in DM dogs. DM dogs require the rapid-acting insulin dosage of 1.0 unit per 12.7 g of carbohydrate intake. This count is dependent on insulin sensitivity of each dog. In conclusion, these results indicate that the total amount of carbohydrate in a diet was considered as an important factor for determining insulin requirement in DM dogs.

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Periodontal disease is common in dogs. Porphyromonas gingivalis, Bacteroides forsythus, Treponema denticola are thought to be the primary pathogens for canine periodontal disease. In this study, we applied semiquantitative human periodontal pathogen protease test kit（Periocheck ^®）to investigate its availability in veterinary practice. Periodontal pocket sample was collected from 15 dogs. Semiquantitative protease activity of sample was compared with the results of pathogen specific DNA detection and periodontal disease score. The protease activity was significantly correlated with the disease score in dogs examined and was significantly higher in samples from which B. forsythus gene was detected. Periocheck was also applied to six cats. Protease activity was detected in three cats and B. forsythus gene was detected from two cats. We examined the efficacy of lactoferrin and anti-gingipain IgY antibody containing supplement（Orafort ^®）which is expected to improve periodontal disease. Eight dogs received the supplement twice daily for a week. Protease activity, disease score and the results of the pathogen DNA detection were evaluated before and after administration. Though the protease activity and periodontal disease score improved in two and three dogs respectively, there was no significant difference between before and after the administration. In conclusion, the human periodontal protease test kit can be applied to dogs and cats. Though further investigation is necessary to confirm the clinical utility of the kit, periodontal protease kit may help to develop efficient treatment and prevention procedure for periodontal disease in dogs and cats.

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Circadian rhythm of the glucose, insulin and incretin concentrations had been reported in humans study. However, it is unclear in dogs. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to compare the blood glucose, insulin and incretin levels between day- and night-time in healthy dogs. For data analyses, day-time was defined as 7:00 am-7:00 pm and night-time as 7:00 pm-7:00 am. Four healthy dogs were used in this study and fed the same amount of diets twice a day（semidiurnal）. We measured postpandial glucose, insulin and incretin（glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide〔GIP〕and glucagon-like peptide-1〔GLP-1〕）, concentrations. No significant changes in mean glucose concentrations, at different time points, were observed between day- and night-time. Meanwhile, significant increase was observed in postprandial insulin concentration at 1 hr of night-time compared to that of day-time. Postprandial GIP and GLP-1 concentrations were increased in a few hours, and followed by gradually decreased. However, different higher peak concentrations were observed between the day-time and the night-time. These results suggested that circadian rhythm of these parameters were also found in healthy dogs.

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This study aimed to evaluate the effect of dietary fat sources on lipid metabolism in different mouse strains. Three inbred mouse strains, C57BL/6J（B6）, BALB/cA（BALB）, and KK/Ta（KK）, were fed standard rodent chow（SC）and three high-fat diets with different dietary fats: safflower oil（HF-S）, lard （HF-L）, and purified palm oil powder（HF-P）for 6 weeks. Fatty acid compositions of HF-S, HF-L, and HF-P were monounsaturated fatty acids（MUFA）＞saturated fatty acids（SFA）, MUFA≒SFA, and MUFA＜SFA, respectively. Although energy intakes were significantly higher in the HF-P group than that of the other groups, body weight gains and fat weights were smaller compared to HF-S and HF-L groups in B6 and BALB. In KK mice, energy intakes, body weight gains, and fat weights in all high-fat diet groups were significantly higher than the SC group. Fasting blood glucose in B6 and BALB fed high-fat diets were also significantly elevated, particularly in HF-S and HF-L. HF-P groups of BALB and KK had significantly higher serum TG than that of the SC group. These results revealed that the lipid metabolisms in mice are clearly different depending on dietary fat sources and mouse strains.

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