Effect of physical training on norepinephrine turnover in tissues of normal and diabetic rats

This study was designed to examine the influence of physical training on the norepinephrine turnover rate in heart, pancreas, liver, and gastrocnemius muscles of normal and diabetic male rats at rest. Diabetes was induced with the IV injection of streptozotocin (45 mg/kg) and physical training was done on a treadmill according to a ten-week program. Norepinephrine turnover rate of tissues was estimated by following over time the decay in the specific activity of norepinephrine after a single IV bolus of tritiated norepinephrine (30 microCi/kg). Plasma glucose, insulin, and glucagon levels were also measured at the time of death. Although training caused a reduction in the plasma glucose values of diabetic rats, no changes in norepinephrine turnover rate were observed after the conditioning program. On the other hand, diabetes was associated with a significant 30% to 40% decrease in the pancreatic norepinephrine turnover rate. It is concluded that the beneficial effects of physical training on diabetes mellitus cannot be explained by adaptive changes in the sympathetic nervous system activity and that further work will be necessary to elucidate the mechanism whereby streptozotocin diabetes diminishes the pancreatic norepinephrine turnover.