PGC-1α-induced improvements in skeletal muscle metabolism and insulin sensitivityThis paper is one of a selection of papers published in this Special Issue, entitled 14th International Biochemistry of Exercise Conference – Muscles as Molecular and Metabolic Machines, and has undergone the Journal’s usual peer review process.

The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) coactivator 1α (PGC-1α), a nuclear encoded transcriptional coactivator, increases the expression of many genes in skeletal muscle, including those involved with fatty acid oxidation and oxidative phosphorylation. Exercise increases the expression of PGC-1α, and the exercise-induced upregulation of many genes is attributable, in part, to the preceding activation and upregulation of PGC-1α. Indeed, PGC-1α overexpression, like exercise training, increases exercise performance. PGC-1α reductions in humans have been observed in type 2 diabetes, while, in cell lines, PGC-1α mimics the exercise-induced improvement in insulin sensitivity. However, unexpectedly, in mammalian muscle, PGC-1α overexpression contributed to the development of diet-induced insulin resistance. This may have been related to the massive overexpression of PGC-1α, which induced the upregulation of the fatty acid transporter FAT/CD36 and led to an increase in intramuscular lipids, which interfere with insulin signalling. In contrast, when PGC-1α was overexpressed modestly, within physiological limits, mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation was increased, GLUT4 expression was upregulated, and insulin-stimulated glucose transport was increased. More recently, similar PGC-1α-induced improvements in the insulin-resistant skeletal muscle of obese Zucker rats have been observed. These studies suggest that massive PGC-1α overexpression, but not physiologic PGC-1α overexpression, induces deleterious metabolic effects, and that exercise-induced improvements in insulin sensitivity are induced, in part, by the exercise-induced upregulation of PGC-1α.