Insulin, Muscle Glucose Uptake, and Hexokinase: Revisiting the Road Not Taken

Physiology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David H. Wasserman

Research conducted over the last 50 years has provided insight into the mechanisms by which insulin stimulates glucose transport across the skeletal muscle cell membrane. Transport alone, however, does not result in net glucose uptake as freeglucose equilibrates across the cell membrane and is not metabolized. Glucose uptake requires that glucose is phosphorylated by hexokinases. Phosphorylated glucosecannot leave the cell and is the substrate for metabolism. It is indisputable that glucose phosphorylation is essential for glucose uptake. Major advances have been made in defining the regulation of the insulin-stimulated glucose transporter, GLUT4, in skeletalmuscle. By contrast, the insulin-regulated hexokinase, hexokinase II parallels RobertFrost's Road Not Taken. Here the case is made that an understanding of glucosephosphorylation by hexokinase II is necessary to define the regulation of skeletal muscle glucose uptake in health and insulin resistance. Results of studies from different physiological disciplines that have elegantly described how hexokinase II can beregulated are summarized to provide a framework for potential application to skeletal muscle. Mechanisms by which hexokinase II is regulated in skeletal muscle await rigorous examination.

1995 ◽  
Vol 305 (2) ◽  
pp. 465-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
J F Hocquette ◽  
F Bornes ◽  
M Balage ◽  
P Ferre ◽  
J Grizard ◽  
...  

It is well accepted that skeletal muscle is a major glucose-utilizing tissue and that insulin is able to stimulate in vivo glucose utilization in ruminants as in monogastrics. In order to determine precisely how glucose uptake is controlled in various ruminant muscles, particularly by insulin, this study was designed to investigate in vitro glucose transport and insulin-regulatable glucose-transporter protein (GLUT4) in muscle from calf and goat. Our data demonstrate that glucose transport is the rate-limiting step for glucose uptake in bovine fibre strips, as in rat muscle. Insulin increases the rate of in vitro glucose transport in bovine muscle, but to a lower extent than in rat muscle. A GLUT4-like protein was detected by immunoblot assay in all insulin-responsive tissues from calf and goat (heart, skeletal muscle, adipose tissue) but not in liver, brain, erythrocytes and intestine. Unlike the rat, bovine and goat GLUT4 content is higher in glycolytic and oxido-glycolytic muscles than in oxidative muscles. In conclusion, using both a functional test (insulin stimulation of glucose transport) and an immunological approach, this study demonstrates that ruminant muscles express GLUT4 protein. Our data also suggest that, in ruminants, glucose is the main energy-yielding substrate for glycolytic but not for oxidative muscles, and that insulin responsiveness may be lower in oxidative than in other skeletal muscles.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian de Wendt ◽  
Lena Espelage ◽  
Samaneh Eickelschulte ◽  
Christian Springer ◽  
Laura Toska ◽  
...  

The two closely related RabGTPase-activating proteins (RabGAPs) TBC1D1 and TBC1D4, both substrates for the AMP-activated protein kinase AMPK, play important roles in exercise metabolism and contraction-dependent translocation of the glucose transporter GLUT4 in skeletal muscle. However, the specific contribution of each RabGAP in contraction signaling is mostly unknown. In this study, we investigated the cooperative AMPK/RabGAP signaling axis in the metabolic response to exercise/contraction using a novel mouse model deficient in active skeletal muscle AMPK, combined with knockout of either <i>Tbc1d1</i>, <i>Tbc1d4</i> or both RabGAPs. AMPK-deficiency in muscle reduced treadmill exercise performance. Additional deletion of <i>Tbc1d1</i> but not <i>Tbc1d4 </i>resulted in further decrease in exercise capacity. In oxidative <i>Soleus</i> muscle, AMPK deficiency reduced contraction-mediated glucose uptake and deletion of each or both RabGAPs had no further effect. In contrast, in glycolytic <i>EDL</i> muscle, AMPK deficiency reduced contraction-stimulated glucose uptake and deletion of <i>Tbc1d1 </i>but not <i>Tbc1d4 </i>led to a further decrease. Importantly, skeletal muscle deficient in AMPK and both RabGAPs still exhibited residual contraction-mediated glucose uptake, which was completely abolished by inhibition of the GTPase <i>Rac1</i>. Our results demonstrate a novel mechanistic link between glucose transport and <a></a><a>the GTPase signaling framework in skeletal muscle in response to contraction.</a>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian de Wendt ◽  
Lena Espelage ◽  
Samaneh Eickelschulte ◽  
Christian Springer ◽  
Laura Toska ◽  
...  

The two closely related RabGTPase-activating proteins (RabGAPs) TBC1D1 and TBC1D4, both substrates for the AMP-activated protein kinase AMPK, play important roles in exercise metabolism and contraction-dependent translocation of the glucose transporter GLUT4 in skeletal muscle. However, the specific contribution of each RabGAP in contraction signaling is mostly unknown. In this study, we investigated the cooperative AMPK/RabGAP signaling axis in the metabolic response to exercise/contraction using a novel mouse model deficient in active skeletal muscle AMPK, combined with knockout of either <i>Tbc1d1</i>, <i>Tbc1d4</i> or both RabGAPs. AMPK-deficiency in muscle reduced treadmill exercise performance. Additional deletion of <i>Tbc1d1</i> but not <i>Tbc1d4 </i>resulted in further decrease in exercise capacity. In oxidative <i>Soleus</i> muscle, AMPK deficiency reduced contraction-mediated glucose uptake and deletion of each or both RabGAPs had no further effect. In contrast, in glycolytic <i>EDL</i> muscle, AMPK deficiency reduced contraction-stimulated glucose uptake and deletion of <i>Tbc1d1 </i>but not <i>Tbc1d4 </i>led to a further decrease. Importantly, skeletal muscle deficient in AMPK and both RabGAPs still exhibited residual contraction-mediated glucose uptake, which was completely abolished by inhibition of the GTPase <i>Rac1</i>. Our results demonstrate a novel mechanistic link between glucose transport and <a></a><a>the GTPase signaling framework in skeletal muscle in response to contraction.</a>


1997 ◽  
Vol 273 (4) ◽  
pp. E682-E687 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jared P. Jones ◽  
G. Lynis Dohm

Transport of glucose across the plasma membrane by GLUT-4 and subsequent phosphorylation of glucose by hexokinase II (HKII) constitute the first two steps of glucose utilization in skeletal muscle. This study was undertaken to determine whether epinephrine and/or insulin regulates in vivo GLUT-4 and HKII gene transcription in rat skeletal muscle. In the first experiment, adrenodemedullated male rats were fasted 24 h and killed in the control condition or after being infused for 1.5 h with epinephrine (30 μg/ml at 1.68 ml/h). In the second experiment, male rats were fasted 24 h and killed after being infused for 2.5 h at 1.68 ml/h with saline or glucose (625 mg/ml) or insulin (39.9 μg/ml) plus glucose (625 mg/ml). Nuclei were isolated from pooled quadriceps, tibialis anterior, and gastrocnemius muscles. Transcriptional run-on analysis indicated that epinephrine infusion decreased GLUT-4 and increased HKII transcription compared with fasted controls. Both glucose and insulin plus glucose infusion induced increases in GLUT-4 and HKII transcription of twofold and three- to fourfold, respectively, compared with saline-infused rats. In conclusion, epinephrine and insulin may regulate GLUT-4 and HKII genes at the level of transcription in rat skeletal muscle.


Author(s):  
Hye Kyoung Sung ◽  
Patricia L. Mitchell ◽  
Sean Gross ◽  
Andre Marette ◽  
Gary Sweeney

Adiponectin is well established to mediate many beneficial metabolic effects, and this has stimulated great interest in development and validation of adiponectin receptor agonists as pharmaceutical tools. This study investigated the effects of ALY688, a peptide-based adiponectin receptor agonist, in rat L6 skeletal muscle cells. ALY688 significantly increased phosphorylation of several adiponectin downstream effectors, including AMPK, ACC and p38MAPK, assessed by immunoblotting and immunofluorescence microscopy. Temporal analysis using cells expressing an Akt biosensor demonstrated that ALY688 enhanced insulin sensitivity. This effect was associated with increased insulin-stimulated Akt and IRS-1 phosphorylation. The functional metabolic significance of these signaling effects was examined by measuring glucose uptake in myoblasts stably overexpressing the glucose transporter GLUT4. ALY688 treatment both increased glucose uptake itself and enhanced insulin-stimulated glucose uptake. In the model of high glucose/high insulin (HGHI)-induced insulin resistant cells, both temporal studies using the Akt biosensor as well as immunoblotting assessing Akt and IRS-1 phosphorylation indicated that ALY688 significantly reduced insulin resistance. Importantly, we observed that ALY688 administration to high-fat high sucrose fed mice also improve glucose handling, validating its efficacy in vivo. In summary, these data indicate that ALY688 activates adiponectin signaling pathways in skeletal muscle, leading to improved insulin sensitivity and beneficial metabolic effects.


1998 ◽  
Vol 274 (2) ◽  
pp. E304-E308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janice A. Koval ◽  
Ralph A. DeFronzo ◽  
Robert M. O’Doherty ◽  
Richard Printz ◽  
Hossein Ardehali ◽  
...  

A single bout of exercise increases the rate of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and metabolism in skeletal muscle. Exercise also increases insulin-stimulated glucose 6-phosphate in skeletal muscle, suggesting that exercise increases hexokinase activity. Within 3 h, exercise increases hexokinase II (HK II) mRNA and activity in skeletal muscle from rats. It is not known, however, if a single bout of moderate-intensity exercise increases HK II expression in humans. The present study was undertaken to answer this question. Six subjects had percutaneous biopsies of the vastus lateralis muscle before and 3 h after a single 3-h session of moderate-intensity aerobic (60% of maximal oxygen consumption) exercise. Glycogen synthase, HK I, and HK II activities as well as HK I and HK II mRNA content were determined from the muscle biopsy specimens. The fractional velocity of glycogen synthase was increased by 446 ± 84% after exercise ( P < 0.005). Hexokinase II activity in the soluble fraction of the homogenates increased from 1.2 ± 0.4 to 4.5 ± 1.6 pmol ⋅ min−1 ⋅ μg−1( P < 0.05) but was unchanged in the particulate fraction (4.3 ± 1.3 vs. 5.3 ± 1.5). HK I activity in neither the soluble nor particulate fraction changed after exercise. Relative to a 28S rRNA control signal, HK II mRNA increased from 0.091 ± 0.02 to 0.195 ± 0.037 ( P < 0.05), whereas HK I mRNA was unchanged (0.414 ± 0.061 vs. 0.498 ± 0.134, P < 0.20). The increase in HK II activity after moderate exercise in healthy subjects could be one factor responsible for the enhanced rate of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake seen after exercise.


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