TY - JOUR T1 - Regulation of Plasma Fructose and Mortality in Mice by the Aldose Reductase Inhibitor Lidorestat JF - Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics JO - J Pharmacol Exp Ther SP - 496 LP - 503 DO - 10.1124/jpet.108.136283 VL - 328 IS - 2 AU - Hye-Lim Noh AU - Yunying Hu AU - Tae-Sik Park AU - Thomas DiCioccio AU - Andrew J. Nichols AU - Kazue Okajima AU - Shunichi Homma AU - Ira J. Goldberg Y1 - 2009/02/01 UR - http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/328/2/496.abstract N2 - Aldose reductase (AR), an enzyme widely believed to be involved in the aberrant metabolism of glucose and development of diabetic complications, is expressed at low levels in the mouse. We studied whether expression of human AR (hAR), its inhibition with lidorestat, which is an AR inhibitor (ARI), and the presence of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes altered plasma fructose, mortality, and/or vascular lesions in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor-deficient [Ldlr(-/-)] mice. Mice were made diabetic at 12 weeks of age with low-dose STZ treatment. Four weeks later, the diabetic animals (glucose > 20 mM) were blindly assigned to a 0.15% cholesterol diet with or without ARI. After 4 and 6 weeks, there were no significant differences in body weights or plasma cholesterol, triglyceride, and glucose levels between the groups. Diabetic Ldlr(-/-) mice receiving ARI had plasma fructose levels of 5.2 ± 2.3 μg/ml; placebo-treated mice had plasma fructose levels of 12.08 ± 7.4 μg/ml, p < 0.01, despite the induction of fructose-metabolizing enzymes, fructose kinase and adolase B. After 6 weeks, hAR/Ldlr(-/-) mice on the placebo-containing diet had greater mortality (31%, n = 9/26 versus 6%, n = 1/21, p < 0.05). The mortality rate in the ARI-treated group was similar to that in non-hAR-expressing mice. Therefore, diabetic hAR-expressing mice had increased fructose and greater mortality that was corrected by inclusion of lidorestat, an ARI, in the diet. If similar effects are found in humans, such treatment could improve clinical outcome in diabetic patients. The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics ER -