The influences of insulin and food intake on intestinal ornithine transcarbamylase activity in diabetic rats.

Abstract

Intestinal ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) activity was studied in rats with experimentally-induced diabetes. After the injection of streptozotocin, OTC activity was approximately 75% that of age-matched controls. Then we investigated the influences of (a) insulin treatment and (b) limiting food-intake, which was adjusted to the control level, on OTC activities in the three segments of the small intestine. (a) Insulin treatment resulted in OTC activities being restored to control levels in all segments of the small intestine, with the disappearance of intestinal epithelial hyperplasia. (b) In limited food-intake rats, OTC activities of the middle and distal segments normalized with insulin treatment. In the proximal segment, however, which showed epithelial hyperplasia, OTC activity was as low as that in untreated STZ rats. These observations suggest that altered regulation of intestinal epithelial over-growth and immoderate food-intake were normalized by insulin treatment, leading to the restoration of normal OTC activity in the small intestine.