Preventing hyperphagia normalizes 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase activity in small intestine and liver of diabetic rats.

Rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes stop growing, develop high cholesterol and triacylglycerol levels in plasma, and have decreased activity of the rate-limiting enzyme in cholesterol synthesis, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl CoA reductase (EC 1.1.1.34), in liver and increased activity in small intestine. They also eat more than normal. To determine the contribution of hyperphagia to these changes in lipid metabolism, we restricted intake of chow to the amount eaten ad lib by normal rats. Rats were meal-fed for 8 or 22 days from the time diabetes was induced. This regimen normalized reductase activity in both liver and intestine at mid-dark and mid-light, and all but eliminated high plasma cholesterol and triacylglycerol levels, although plasma insulin remained low and glucose remained high. Activation of hepatic reductase by endogenous phosphatase in vitro was reduced in hyperphagic diabetic rats but was normal in diabetic rats eating a normal amount of food. We conclude that hyperphagia, rather than direct effects of insulin deficiency as is usually assumed, is responsible for perturbations of lipid metabolism in chronically diabetic rats. These results support the proposal that hyperphagia increases the input of dietary and newly synthesized cholesterol from the small intestine, and that this increased input raises plasma cholesterol level and inhibits reductase activity in liver.