The effects of alloxan diabetes and insulin on the oxidative metabolism of adipose tissue.

The use of the paired epididymal fat pads of the rat under carefully controlled conditions has revealed the marked sensitivity of this tissue to insulin in vitro or in viva (l-3) and has permitted the demonstration of numerous abnormalities in the metabolism of adipose tissue from alloxan diabetic rats (4, 5). It has been shown that insulin in vitro or in vivo rapidly increases the depressed oxidation of glucose carbon to carbon dioxide and restores the incorporation of glucose carbon into long chain fatty acid (1, 2, 4) in adipose tissue from alloxan diabetic rats. The studies that form the basis of this report were designed to delineate the effects of alloxan diabetes and insulin on the oxygen uptake of adipose tissue incubated without substrate and with glucose, pyruvate, and various Krebs cycle intermediates.