Halothane anaesthesia can block insulin stimulation of pyruvate dehydrogenase activity in mammary glands of 24-hour starved lactating rats.

The effect of halothane anaesthesia on the activity of the mitochondrial enzyme pyruvate dehydrogenase was studied in starved lactating rats. Extracts of freeze-clamped mammary gland and liver were assayed for pyruvate dehydrogenase activity. The fraction of the enzyme in the phosphorylated inactive form was increased greatly by starvation or by streptozotocin diabetes, and halothane anaesthesia did not disturb this effect. In starved animals not exposed to halothane, injection of insulin led to a rapid increase in the active fraction of the enzyme in mammary gland but not in liver. In animals under halothane anaesthesia this effect of insulin was largely abolished. The combination of starvation and halothane anaesthesia may impair mitochondrial accumulation of calcium which may be involved in the stimulation of pyruvate dehydrogenase by insulin.