SUCCINIC DEHYDROGENASE AND ANAEROBIC GLYCOLYSIS IN LIVERS OF DIABETIC RATS¹

Abstract

In the diabetic animal carbohydrate metabolism is markedly altered so that protein and fat storage are decreased (Mirsky, Swadesh and Ransohoff, 1937; Stetten and Boxer, 1944) and a large part of the glucose is lost in the urine, with concomitant loss of depot fat, loss of nitrogen, and failure of growth (Soskin and Levine, 1946; Mackler and Guest, 1949; Young, 1944). In view of the modern concept that enzymes play a fundamental role in cellular metabolism, one can postulate that insulin is interacting with, or in some way affecting the action of enzymes. The results to be described in this report are concerned with the succinic dehydrogenase activity of liver, and with anaerobic glycolysis of liver and brain tissues of alloxan-diabetic lactating rats. Lactating female rats three to four months of age, which were primarily used to study the effect of diabetes on lactation and on the enzymes of the corpora lutea were used in the studies.