Impaired development of individual cerebellar lobules in the diabetes insipidus Brattleboro rat.

The size differences in the midsagittal cerebellum, its individual lobules and its layers are studied in homozygous diabetic (HOM) and heterozygous Brattleboro rats on postnatal days 12, 24 and 180. As has been reported for total cerebellar weight, no significant reduction in cerebellar size in HOM rats occurs at day 12, whereas from day 12 onwards the cerebellar growth in HOM rats is significantly stunted. The HOM cerebellum shows a particular structural etiology: not all cerebellar lobules are equally affected and in 180-day-old rats a sexually dimorphic effect is found.