The hepatic transport of bile salts appears to be adaptively regulated by changes in the bile salt pool size and in the flux of bile salt through the liver. The maximum secretory rate of taurocholate increases or decreases when the bile salt pool size is modified by either oral feeding of cholate or taurocholate (up-regulation) or prolonged bile salt depletion through a biliary fistula (down-regulation), respectively. It is not known whether adaptive regulation of hepatic bile salt transport operates under conditions in which the bile salt pool size is modified by endogenous changes in bile acid metabolism. Because experimental diabetes mellitus is associated with alterations in the synthesis of bile acids and total bile salt pool size and composition in the rat, we examined the effects of diabetes mellitus induced by alloxan (5 mg/100 gm body weight, intravenously) and insulin treatment on hepatic bile salt transport and relate the changes to bile salt pool size variations. At 3 days after alloxan injection (DIAB-3 group) both taurocholate maximum secretory rate and pool size were significantly decreased, whereas they were restored to normal values after 6 days of diabetes (DIAB-6 group). Insulinopenic diabetes for 14 days (DIAB-14 group) and for 24 days (DIAB-24 group) resulted in a marked increase of basal bile salt secretory rate (secondary to an increased contribution of cholate conjugates) and an enhanced taurocholate maximum secretory rate compared with control rats (147% and 188% increase, respectively) and with a group (PHARM-control) that received alloxan but did not develop detectable glycosuria (224% and 286% increase, respectively).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)