The regulation of phosphate-activated glutaminase activity and glutamine metabolism in the streptozotocin-diabetic rat

The activity of phosphate-activated glutaminase was increased in the kidney, liver and small intestine of rats made diabetic for 6 days with injection of streptozotocin (75 mg/kg body wt.). Insulin prevented this increase in all three tissues. Treatment with NaHCO3, to correct the acidosis that accompanies diabetes, prevented the increase in renal glutaminase activity, but not that in liver or small intestine. Chemically induced acidosis (NH4Cl solution as drinking water) or alkalosis (NaHCO3 solution as drinking water) increased and decreased, respectively, glutaminase activity in the kidney, but were without significant effect on the activity in liver and small intestine. The increase in glutaminase activity in the small intestine during diabetes was due to an overall increase in the size of this organ, and was only detectable when activity was expressed in terms of whole organ, not mucosal scrapings or isolated enterocytes. Prolonged diabetes (40 days) resulted in an even greater increase in the size and glutaminase activity of the small intestine. Despite this marked increase in capacity for glutamine catabolism, arteriovenous-difference measurements showed a complete suppression of plasma glutamine utilization by the small intestine during diabetes, confirming the report by Brosnan, Man, Hall, Colbourne & Brosnan [(1983) Am. J. Physiol. 235, E261-E265].