Acute diabetes does not reduce heparin-releasable lipoprotein lipase activity in perfused hearts from Wistar-Kyoto rats.

The induction of diabetes (3-5 days duration) in Wistar-Kyoto rats by the administration of streptozotocin (100 mg/kg) did not increase plasma concentrations of triacylglycerols or free fatty acids, and did not reduce heparin-releasable (functional) lipoprotein lipase activity in perfused hearts. By comparison, diabetic Sprague-Dawley rats were characterized as having hypertriglyceridemia and decreased heparin-releasable lipoprotein lipase activity in perfused hearts. Therefore, the diabetes-induced reduction in myocardial lipoprotein lipase activity in Sprague-Dawley rat hearts may, at least in part, be a compensatory response to the hypertriglyceridemia and increased fatty acid delivery to the myocardial cell, which is a characteristic feature of most severe, insulin-deficient models of diabetes mellitus. Although functional, endothelium-bound lipoprotein lipase activity was not reduced in diabetic perfused hearts from Wistar-Kyoto rats, cellular and heparin-releasable lipoprotein lipase activity was reduced in cardiac myocyte preparations, suggesting that other mechanisms in addition to plasma triacylglycerol must regulate lipoprotein lipase activity in the whole diabetic Wistar-Kyoto rat heart and that cardiac myocytes may not be the exclusive source of functional lipoprotein lipase in the diabetic myocardium.