In the present study, we investigated the effects of hypothyroidism on the morphology of astrocytes and microglia in the hippocampus of Zucker diabetic fatty rats and Zucker lean control rats. To in-duce hypothyroidism, Zucker lean control and Zucker diabetic fatty rats at 7 weeks of age oral y received the vehicle or methimazole, an anti-thyroid drug, treatment for 5 weeks and were sacrificed at 12 weeks of age in al groups for blood chemistry and immunohistochemical staining. In the methimazole-treated Zucker lean control and Zucker diabetic fatty rats, the serum circulating tri odothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) levels were significantly decreased compared to levels ob-served in the vehicle-treated Zucker lean control or Zucker diabetic fatty rats. This reduction was more prominent in the methimazole-treated Zucker diabetic fatty group. Glial fibril ary acidic protein immunoreactive astrocytes and ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1 (Iba-1)-immunoreactive microglia in the Zucker lean control and Zucker diabetic fatty group were diffusely detected in the hippocampal CA1 region and dentate gyrus. There were no significant differences in the glial fibril ary acidic protein and Iba-1 immunoreactivity in the CA1 region and dentate gyrus between Zucker lean control and Zucker diabetic fatty groups. However, in the methimazole-treated Zucker lean control and Zucker diabetic fatty groups, the processes of glial fibril ary acidic protein immunoreactive astrocytes and Iba-1 immunoreactive microglia, were significantly decreased in both the CA1 region and dentate gyrus compared to that in the vehicle-treated Zucker lean control and Zucker diabetic fatty groups. These results suggest that diabetes has no effect on the mor-phology of astrocytes and microglia and that hypothyroidism during the onset of diabetes promi-nently reduces the processes of astrocytes and microglia.