Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Journal of Endocrinology Volume 2012, Article ID 962012, 12 pages doi:10.1155/2012/962012 Research Article Intermittent Fasting Modulation of the Diabetic Syndrome in Streptozotocin-Injected Rats Louiza Belkacemi, 1 Ghalem Selselet-Attou, 1 Emeline Hupkens, 2 Evrard Nguidjoe, 3 Karim Louchami, 2 Abdullah Sener, 2 and Willy J. Malaisse 2 1 Laboratoire de Technologie Alimentaire et Nutrition, Universit´ e de Mostaganem, 1070 Mostaganem, Algeria 2 Laboratory of Experimental Hormonology, Universit´ e Libre de Bruxelles, 808 Route de Lennik, 1070 Brussels, Belgium 3 Laboratory of Pharmacology, Universit´ e Libre de Bruxelles, 808 Route de Lennik, 1070 Brussels, Belgium Correspondence should be addressed to Willy J. Malaisse, malaisse@ulb.ac.be Received 26 July 2011; Revised 9 October 2011; Accepted 13 October 2011 Academic Editor: A. N. Balamurugan Copyright © 2012 Louiza Belkacemi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This study investigates the effects of intermittent overnight fasting in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats (STZ rats). Over 30 days, groups of 5-6 control or STZ rats were allowed free food access, starved overnight, or exposed to a restricted food supply comparable to that ingested by the intermittently fasting animals. Intermittent fasting improved glucose tolerance, increased plasma insulin, and lowered Homeostatis Model Assessment index. Caloric restriction failed to cause such beneficial effects. The β-cell mass, as well as individual β-cell and islet area, was higher in intermittently fasting than in nonfasting STZ rats, whilst the percentage of apoptotic β-cells appeared lower in the former than latter STZ rats. In the calorie-restricted STZ rats, comparable findings were restricted to individual islet area and percentage of apoptotic cells. Hence, it is proposed that intermittent fasting could represent a possible approach to prevent or minimize disturbances of glucose homeostasis in human subjects. 1. Introduction Overabundant food intake with chronic positive energy balance leads to obesity and type 2 diabetes, whilst reduction in food intake, by increasing insulin sensitivity and improv- ing glucose homeostasis, is currently recommended in the treatment of these metabolic disorders [1–4]. Such a caloric restriction may include a relative decrease of food intake [5– 7] or otherwise either a total short [8, 9] or prolonged [10] fasting. Intermittent overnight fasting, inspired by the daily fasting period during the Ramadan, was recently reported to prevent the progressive deterioration of glucose tolerance otherwise taking place in sand rats exposed to a hypercaloric diet [11–13]. The major aim of the present study was to investigate whether a comparable benefit of intermittent fasting may prevail in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. 2. Materials and Methods 2.1. Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetes. Eight to 10 weeks after birth, female Wistar rats (Charles River, Wilmington, MA, USA) were injected intraperitoneally, after overnight starva- tion, with streptozotocin (STZ, 65 mg/kg body wt.) freshly dissolved in a citrate buffer (50 mM, pH 4.5). These rats were given access during the night after the injection of strepto- zotocin to a solution of saccharose (10 g/100 mL) to prevent possible hypoglycemia. Control rats were injected with the citrate buffer. Five days after the injection of streptozotocin, the glycemia was measured with the help of glucometer (Lifescan Benelux, Beerse, Belgium) in blood obtained from caudal vein. Only those rats displaying a glycemia in excess of 16.7 mM were kept for further investigations. 2.2. Starvation and Restricted Food Supply. In order to compare the effects of an intermittent fasting, mimicking