Two animal models of diabetes, STZ (corresponding to type 1 diabetes model) and neonatally injected STZ (nSTZ) rats (resembling a type 2 diabetes model) were tested. In the first case, the main action of tungstate appears to be the restoration of the hepatic glucose metabolism by increasing the capacity of the liver to utilize glucose through glycolysis and glycogenesis, and to decrease its potential for glucose output
However, this does not appear to be the case in rats with diabetes induced by nSTZ; in these rats, the normoglycemic effect of tungstate cannot be attributed to the small changes observed in hepatic glucose metabolism. Moreover, the main action of tungstate appears to be correlated with an increase in insulin content and β-cell mass, which leads to an improvement in the ability of β-cells to respond to glucose