The purpose of this study was to examine the short-term effects of diet containing 0.1% (m/m) of acarbose in standard laboratory chow on specific liver enzyme activities: alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in control and diabetic CBA mice. Diabetes was induced by intravenous injection of alloxan monohydrate in a dose of 75 mg kg(-1) mouse body mass seven days before the treatment with acarbose. There were four groups of CBA mice in the experiment: control (C) mice (n = 6) and diabetic (D) mice (n = 8) fed standard chow; control (C/A-100) mice (n = 8) and diabetic (D/A-100) mice (n = 8) fed standard chow containing 0.1% acarbose. Diabetes induced a decrease of the ALT catalytic activities to 69.6% of the control value. A similar level of decreased ALT catalytic activity was detected in the liver of control and diabetic mice fed chow containing 0.1% acarbose. No changes in the specific and total activities of AST in the liver of experimental groups were observed.