Hyperphagia alters cholesterol dynamics in diabetic rats

Rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes stop growing and start eating more chow. These two events elicit an interacting series of changes in cholesterol dynamics. Hyperphagia increases dietary cholesterol intake and cholesterol synthesis by the small intestine. These increases are balanced by a decrease in cholesterol synthesis in the rest of the body so that total cholesterol input is normal. With growth failure, utilization of cholesterol for formation of new tissue ceases. This decrease is balanced by an increase in bile acid synthesis by the liver. The bile acid pool in the contents of the small intestine is enlarged by hyperphagia. Despite these changes, fecal sterol excretion and total utilization of cholesterol are normal. During the course of changes in growth and food intake and the attendant changes in cholesterol flux, the total tissue cholesterol pool does not change. Therefore influx equals efflux and the systems regulating cholesterol and bile acid synthesis are responding appropriately and are themselves unperturbed by insulin deficiency. However, plasma cholesterol level increases threefold. This elevation is due to increased influx of cholesterol from the small intestine and decreased synthesis in the rest of the body, so that a larger portion of total body cholesterol influx passes through the blood.