Evidence that changes in hepatic 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase activity are required partly to maintain a constant rate of sterol synthesis.

The effects of insulin, glucagon, pyruvate, and lactate on the rate of sterol synthesis and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl (HMG)-CoA reductase activity were determined in hepatocytes obtained at different times of the day from rats maintained on a controlled lighting and feeding schedule. In hepatocytes from animals killed immediately before the start of the feeding period (D0 hepatocytes), the initially low activity of HMG-CoA reductase increased during incubation while that in hepatocytes prepared 6 h later (D6 hepatocytes) remained constantly high. The rates of sterol synthesis followed similar patterns of change. In both D0 and D6 cells, insulin stimulated HMG-CoA reductase but had little or no effect on the rates of sterol synthesis. In both types of cell preparation glucagon maximally suppressed HMG-CoA reductase activity at a concentration of 10(-7) M, but there was relatively little change in the rates of sterol synthesis. Both pyruvate and lactate mitigated the glucagon-mediated inhibition of HMG-CoA reductase. Each of these lipogenic precursors alone suppressed the rate of sterol synthesis in a dose-dependent manner. These changes were more apparent in the simultaneous presence of insulin and were greater in the D0 compared to the D6 hepatocytes. In the presence of lactate or pyruvate, the activity of HMG-CoA reductase was elevated, and the increase was greater when insulin was simultaneously present. In general, changes in the rate of fatty acid synthesis were positively correlated with changes in the activity of HMG-CoA reductase. These observations suggest that the latter changes are required to compensate for variations in the availability of simple precursors for sterol synthesis.