effects of alloxaninduced diabetes on corpus luteum function in the pseudopregnant rat the effects of alloxaninduced diabetes mellitus on rat ovarian structure and function were examined throughout pseudopregnancy psp animals received either saline c or alloxan 40 mgkg treatment on the day of proestrus pa preceding psp or on day 1 d1a of psp day 0 ovulation serum samples were analyzed by radioimmunoassay for progesterone p and 17betaestradiol e levels and compared with the corresponding changes in ovarian and uterine weights in c pa and d1a rats in addition the effects of daily treatment with 6 iu ovine insulin ai on serum p levels were assessed in d1atreated rats and compared with controls alloxan treatment effectively elevated blood glucose levels p less than or equal to 001 in pa and d1a groups as compared with controls or ai rats alloxan treatment reduced both ovarian and uterine weights of pa and d1a groups as compared with c and ai rats serum p levels were significantly reduced in pa p less than or equal to 001 and d1a p less than or equal to 005001 rats as compared with control rats throughout psp daily insulin treatment reversed the suppressive effects of d1a treatment on serum p levels but did not restore luteal function to control levels neither c nor d1a groups exhibited any marked differences in serum e levels throughout psp the results of these studies indicate that the administration of alloxan before the onset of psp effectively inhibits luteal function whereas d1a treatment induces early luteolysis as compared with controlsabstract truncated at 250 words