Impaired rodent vagal nerve sodium-potassium-ATPase activity in streptozotocin diabetes

Experimental diabetes in rodents is associated with diminished activity of sodium-potassium-adenosine triphosphatase (Na+ -K+ -ATPase) in the sciatic nerve, an abnormality that has been invoked as being factorial in the genesis of diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Whether a parallel metabolic abnormality occurs in the autonomic vagus nerve is unknown. To answer this question, adult male rats made diabetic with streptozotocin (45 mg/kg) and age-matched nondiabetic controls were killed at 1 and 3 months after induction of diabetes. The cervical vagi and sciatic nerves were excised, weighed, and homogenized, and Na+ -K+ -ATPase activities were determined. After 1 month, the diabetic animals showed a significantly reduced sciatic nerve Na+ -K+ -ATPase activity as compared with respective controls, whether expressed in micromoles per gram wet weight per hour (20.5 +/- 4.9 [mean +/- SEM] vs 61.6 +/- 13.0) or micromoles per milligram of protein per hour (0.77 +/- 0.21 vs 2.48 +/- 0.57, p < 0.05, diabetic vs control, respectively). Diabetic vagus nerve Na+ -K+ -ATPase activity was also diminished (40.6 +/- 6.9 mumol/gm wet weight per hour vs 63.2 +/- 9.7 mumol/gm wet weight per hour and 3.83 +/- 0.81 mumol/mg protein per hour vs 5.86 +/- 0.73 mumol/mg protein per hour), but the results did not reach statistical significance. After 3 months, diabetic sciatic nerve Na+ -K+ -ATPase activity was still significantly less than the control group value (16.89 +/- 3.91 mumol/mg wet weight per hour vs 38.9 +/- 4.24 mumol/gm wet weight per hour and 0.48 +/- 0.11 mumol/mg protein per hour vs 1.04 +/- 0.14 mumol/mg protein per hour; p < 0.05, diabetic vs control, respectively).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)