In vitro catabolism of branched-chain amino acids, leucine and valine, was investigated using diaphragm muscles from normal, streptozotocin-diabetic and overnight fasted rats. Oxidation and transamination of [1-14C] branched-chain amino acids were both stimulated to a similar extent by diabetes or fasting, when diaphragms were incubated with glucose. Transamination of leucine and valine was increased when diaphragms were incubated with pyruvate; stimulation of transamination was greatest in diaphragms from diabetic rats. Leucine and valine oxidation by control diaphragms was inhibited by pyruvate while it was unchanged or slightly stimulated in diaphragms from fasted or diabetic rats. Thus diaphragms from diabetic rats oxidized two to threefold more branched-chain amino acids than controls when they were incubated with pyruvate. The specific radioactivity of extracellular alpha-ketoisocaproate (KIC; the product of leucine transamination) produced by diaphragms incubated with [14C]leucine was similar for all groups (fed, fasted, or diabetic) in the presence or absence of pyruvate. Oxidation of [1-14C]KIC by diaphragms from fasted or diabetic rats, incubated with glucose, was the same or less than KIC oxidation by control diaphragms. Incubation with pyruvate inhibited KIC oxidation by control diaphragms to a significantly greater degree than that by diaphragms from diabetic or fasted rats. These data suggest the following Flux through branched-chain amino acid transaminase is limited by the availability of amino group acceptors in diaphragms from normal and overnight fasted rats, and to a greater extent in diaphragms from diabetic rats. Flux through the transaminase may be a major determinant of accelerated branched-chain amino acid oxidation by diaphragms in fasting and diabetes. In diaphragms of fasted and diabetic rats, flux through the branched-chain alpha-ketoacid dehydrogenase complex is resistant to inhibition by pyruvate, which is normally observed in controls.