Effect of dietary and hormonal alterations on the activity of 3-methylcrotonyl-CoA carboylase in rat liver

Previous studies have established that activities of leucine transaminase and branched-chain keto acid dehydrogenase (BCKDH) are under metabolic control. In the present experiment, the authors have investigated whether activity of 3-methylcrotonyl-CoA carboxylase (MCase), an enzyme distal to BCKDH in pathways of leucine oxidation, is also subjected to metabolic regulation. Initially, they developed optimal conditions to assay the activity of this enzyme. The assay was based on the incorporation of /sup 14/CO/sub 2/ into 3-methylcrotonyl-CoA (MC-CoA) by liver mitochondria and required the presence of ATP and biotin. Subsequently, the authors determined the activity (nmol /sup 14/CO/sub 2/ incorporated/mg protein/min, mean +/- SE, 6 rats) of MCase under normal (2.80 +/- 0.09) and altered conditions. The activity of MCase was not affected either by starvation (2.88 +/- 0.13), diabetes (2.95 +/- 0.11), low-protein (2.35 +/- 0.05), or high-protein diet (3.06 +/- 0.06). To further substantiate these results, they measured accumulation of MC-CoA by incubating liver mitochondria with ..cap alpha..-ketoisocaproate (KIC). Of the KIC fraction that underwent flux through BCKDH (2.15 +/- 0.14 nmol/mg protein/min), only 0.26% accumulated as MC-CoA. Even if diabetes, when the flux through BCKDH was significantly increased (3.62 +/- 0.36), the accumulation of MC-CoA was negligible (0.33%). The authorsmore » conclude that a) MCase activity does not change in response to dietary and hormonal alterations, and b) MCase is not a rate-limiting reaction in pathways of leucine oxidation.« less