Abstract
Summary
Respiratory activities were determined for liver mitochondria from rats with chronic alloxan and streptozotocin diabetes. Only those rats with blood glucose levels above 300 mg %, 30 days after injection of the diabetogenic substances were used. Both alloxan and streptozotocin diabetic mitochondria showed increased rates of respiration with a-oxoglutarate and L-malate + pyruvate as substrates but the P:O ratios were not altered. Administration of alloxan (200 mg/kg) to chronically diabetic rats 60 hr prior to killing did not cause further alterations in mitochondrial function which would have been indicative of direct mitochondrial poisoning by alloxan.
It can be concluded that altered efficiency of oxidative phosphorylation in the liver mitochondria is not a primary lesion in the biochemistry of chronic diabetes. Poisoning of liver mitochondria by the direct action of alloxan is not an acceptable explanation for the altered mitochondrial functions previously seen with diabetic liver mitochondria when the alloxan was administered subcutaneously more than 60 hr before rat sacrifice.
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