The present study was designed to examine the effect of chronic type 2 (noninsulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus on cerebral blood flow and metabolism during cerebral ischemia induced by bilateral carotid artery occlusion in spontaneously hypertensive rats. Diabetes was produced by streptozotocin treatment in 2-day neonates and the experiment was performed at the age of 5 months. The level of mean arterial pressure was not different between diabetic and nondiabetic rats. At 1 h after ischemia, cerebral blood flow was decreased to 1% of the resting value and supratentorial lactate was increased by 8-fold of control, being virtually the same in both groups of rats. In contrast, reduction of cerebral ATP was much less in diabetic rats (1.64 +/- 0.15 mmol/kg) than in nondiabetic rats (0.74 +/- 0.07 mmol/kg) (p less than 0.001); ATP in nonischemic control is 2.80-2.85 mmol/kg. These results could not be explained by the difference in cerebral blood flow between the groups during ischemia. The results suggest that chronic mild hyperglycemia exerts rather a protective effect on the brain against ischemic insult. Effective utilization of metabolites, such as glucose and ketone bodies, may play an important role to minimize metabolic derangements in the ischemic brain in type 2 diabetic-hyperglycemic rats.