Intestinal mucosa in diabetes: synthesis of total proteins and sucrase-isomaltase

The effects of insulin deficiency on nitrogen metabolism in muscle and liver have been extensively studied with recent in vivo demonstration of impaired protein synthesis in rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes. Despite the significant contribution of small intestinal mucosa to overall protein metabolism, the effects of insulin deficiency on intestinal protein synthesis have not been completely defined. We studied the effects of streptozotocin-induced diabetes on total protein synthesis by small intestinal mucosa and on synthesis of a single enzyme protein of the enterocyte brush-border membrane sucrase-isomaltase. We used the flooding-dose technique of McNurlan, Tomkins, and Garlick (Biochem. J. 178: 373–379, 1979) to minimize the difficulties of measuring specific radioactivity of precursor phenylalanine and determined incorporation into mucosal proteins and sucrase-isomaltase 20 min after injection of the labeled amino acid. Diabetes did not alter mucosal mass as determined by weight and content of protein and DNA during the 5 days after injection of streptozotocin. Increased rates of sucrase-isomaltase synthesis developed beginning on day 3, and those of total protein developed on day 5. Thus intestinal mucosal protein synthesis is not an insulin-sensitive process.