Dexamethasone (DEX) is known to induce diabetes and dyslipidemia. We have compared fasting triacylglycerol and cholesterol (CH) concentrations across 20 lipoprotein fractions and glucose tolerance in control and DEX-treated male Brown Norway (BN) and congenic BN.SHR-(Il6-Cd36)/Cub (BN.SHR4) rats, which differs from BN in a chromosome 4 segment including a mutant Cd36 gene, a known target of DEX.
Compared to BN, the standard-diet-fed BN.SHR4 showed higher CH and triacylglycerol concentrations, particularly in small VLDL and LDL particles. Total CH was decreased by DEX by more than 21% in BN.SHR4 but not changed in BN (strain*DEX interaction p = 0.0017).
Also, we observed a markedly blunted DEX induction of glucose intolerance in BN.SHR4 compared to BN. In summary, we report a pharmacogenetic interaction between limited genomic segment with mutated Cd36 and DEX-induced glucose intolerance and triacylglycerol and CH redistribution into lipoprotein fractions.