Diabetic rats show more resistance to neuromuscular blockade induced by aminoglycoside antibiotics

Abstract 1. 1. Neuromuscular blocking effect of gentamicin and neomycin evaluated in phrenic-nerve hemidiaphragm preparation in normal and diabetic rats and IC 50 of both drugs determined from LDR curves. 2. 2. IC 50 of gentamicin was 0.91 ± 0.05 and 1.67 ± 0.08 mmol·1 −1 for normal and diabetic rats respectively. 3. 3. IC 50 of neomycin was 0.42 ± 0.02 and 0.61 ± 0.06 mmol·1 −1 for normal and diabetic rats respectively. 4. 4. The results show diabetic rats are more resistant to neuromuscular blocking action of aminoglycoside antibiotics (AGs). 5. 5. Replacement of sodium by lithium (1.5 and 5 mmol·1 −1 ) in the media, reduced this effect of aminoglycosides (AGs) significantly. 6. 6. It appears that the prevention of AGs induced-neuromuscular blockade by lithium is not significantly different in both groups.