Cytochrome P-450 alterations in the BB/Wor spontaneously diabetic rat

The hepatic content of two individual cytochrome P-450 enzymes was analyzed in spontaneously diabetic (BB/Wor) male rats. The major male-specific form, RLM5, was found to be slightly decreased in livers of male rats shortly after the onset of diabetes. In contrast, the level of RLM6 was elevated in livers of diabetic rats that had not received insulin and had become ketotic. These results confirm that the changes in some individual forms of cytochrome P-450 after chemical (streptozotocin) induction of diabetes are also seen in the spontaneously diabetic animal. The earlier observed alterations in cytochrome P-450 are therefore due to the state of diabetes and not to inductive or depressive effects of streptozotocin.