We recently described a preferential reduction of the secretory response to nutrient secretagogues (glucose; leucine plus glutamine) in islets maintained in culture after in vitro exposure to streptozotocin (SZ). The present study is an attempt to further clarify the biochemical mechanisms behind this defective insulin response. Mouse pancreatic islets were collagenase isolated and, after 4-5 days in culture, exposed during 30 min at 37 C to 1.8 mM SZ or vehicle alone (controls). The islets were subsequently cultured for 7 days in medium RPMI 1640 plus 10% calf serum, before the enzymatic and metabolic studies were performed. The activities of the glycolytic enzymes, hexokinase, glucokinase, and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase, were similar in the control and SZ-exposed islets. The relative amount of cytosolic and mitochondria-bound hexokinase was also unaffected by SZ. However, there was a 30-40% decrease in the activity of NAD+- and NADP+-dependent glutamate dehydrogenase and glutamate-aspartate transaminase in the SZ-treated islets. This coincided with a 40% decrease in L-[U-14C]glutamine oxidation in the SZ-treated islets. The D-glucose catabolism was further examined in the presence of D-[5-3H] and D-[6-14C] glucose. There was no difference between control and SZ islets in terms of glucose utilization at either 1.7 or 16.7 mM glucose. The oxidation of D-[6-14C]glucose was nevertheless decreased by more than 50% in SZ islets incubated at 16.7 mM (but not 1.7 mM) glucose. Altogether, these converging observations suggest a perturbation of distal regulatory processes, apparently at the mitochondrial level, in the D-glucose and L-glutamine catabolism of SZ-exposed islets. Whether this reflects a primary action of SZ on the islet mitochondria, or an inhibitory effect of SZ on the synthesis of mitochondrial enzymes, as a result of nuclear DNA damage, remains to be elucidated.