Ataxia telangiectasia mutated impacts insulin-like growth factor 1 signalling in skeletal muscle

Reports that ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) is required for full activation of Akt raise the hypothesis that ATM plays a role in insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) signalling through the Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. Differentiated C2C12 cells harbouring either ATM-targeting short hairpin RNA (shRNA) or non-targeting shRNA and myotubes from a C2C12 lineage previously exposed to empty vector lentivirus were incubated in the presence or absence of 10 nm IGF-1 followed by Western blot analysis. Parallel experiments were performed in isolated soleus muscles from mice expressing only one functional ATM allele (ATM(+/-)) compared with muscles from wild-type (ATM(+/+)) mice. Insulin-like growth factor 1 increased phosphorylation of Akt S473, Akt T308 and p70 S6 kinase (S6K) in myotubes expressing non-targeting shRNA and in empty vector controls, but the IGF-1 effects were significantly reduced in myotubes with shRNA-mediated ATM knockdown. Likewise, IGF-1-stimulated phosphorylation of Akt S473, Akt T308, mTOR and S6K was lower in isolated soleus muscles from ATM(+/-) mice compared with muscles from ATM(+/+) mice. The ATM inhibitor KU55933 prevented stimulation of S6K phosphorylation in C2C12 myotubes exposed to IGF-1, suggesting that decreased IGF-1 action is not limited to chronic conditions of decreased ATM function. Stimulation of insulin receptor substrate 1 tyrosine 612 phosphorylation by IGF-1 was unaffected by ATM deficiency, though IGF-1 phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activity tended to be lower in muscle from ATM haploinsufficient mice compared with wild-type muscle. The data suggest that ATM is a modulator of IGF-1 signalling downstream of insulin receptor substrate 1 in skeletal muscle.

Sensory quality of meat from lambs fed garlic

The objective of this study was to determine whether the inclusion of garlic in a ration would have a negative impact on the flavour of lamb. The study used meat from 31 Merino wether lambs fed diets with varying levels of garlic (0%, 1.8% and 3.6%) for 10 weeks. Cooked samples of meat from the lambs were assessed for flavour and acceptability as lamb by an untrained consumer panel. There was no difference (P>0.05) between the treatments in flavour score, but the 3.6% garlic treatment group scored significantly higher in terms of acceptability as lamb (P<0.05) and was commented on positively by the panellists more frequently than the meat from any other treatment (P<0.05). These results suggest that the inclusion of garlic into the animals' feed did not have a negative impact on the flavour of the lamb and, at the high rate (3.6%), made the meat more acceptable to the panellists.

A role for AMPK in increased insulin action after serum starvation

Serum starvation is a common cell culture procedure for increasing cellular response to insulin, though the mechanism for the serum starvation effect is not understood. We hypothesized that factors known to potentiate insulin action [e.g., AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and p38] or to be involved in insulin signaling leading to glucose transport [e.g., Akt, PKCζ, AS160, and ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM)] would be phosphorylated during serum starvation and would be responsible for increased insulin action after serum starvation. L6 myotubes were incubated in serum-containing or serum-free medium for 3 h. Levels of phosphorylated AMPK, Akt, and ATM were greater in serum-starved cells than in control cells. Serum starvation did not affect p38, PKCζ, or AS160 phosphorylation or insulin-stimulated Akt or AS160 phosphorylation. Insulin had no effect on glucose transport in control cells but caused an increase in glucose uptake for serum-starved cells that was preventable by compound C (an AMPK inhibitor), by expression of dominant negative AMPK (AMPK-DN), and by KU55933 (an ATM inhibitor). ATM protein levels increased during serum starvation, and this increase in ATM was prevented by compound C and AMPK-DN. Thus, it appears that AMPK is required for the serum starvation-related increase in insulin-stimulated glucose transport, with ATM as a possible downstream effector.

Role of ataxia telangiectasia mutated in insulin signalling of muscle-derived cell lines and mouse soleus

AIM

Ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) reportedly plays a role in insulin-stimulated activation of Akt in some cell types but not in others. The role of ATM in insulin signalling has not been firmly resolved for skeletal muscle cells, for which Akt phosphorylation is a pivotal step in stimulation of glucose transport. Accordingly, our aim was to determine the role of ATM in insulin effects for cell lines derived from skeletal muscle and for skeletal muscle.

METHODS

We examined insulin effects in L6 myotubes, mouse soleus, C2C12 myotubes and differentiated rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cells in the presence and absence of a low concentration (1 microm) of the ATM inhibitor KU55933. We also compared insulin signalling in C2C12 cells expressing shRNA against ATM and control cell lines (empty vector; cells expressing non-targeting shRNA).

RESULTS

In L6 myotubes and mouse soleus muscle, KU55933 inhibited insulin-stimulated phosphorylation of the 160 kDa substrate of Akt (AS160) despite no effect on Akt. In contrast, KU55933 prevented insulin-stimulated Akt phosphorylation in C2C12 myotubes. Furthermore, C2C12 myotubes expressing shRNA against ATM displayed reduced insulin-stimulated Akt phosphorylation compared to controls. KU55933 also decreased insulin-stimulated Akt phosphorylation in differentiated RD cells.

CONCLUSION

These model-dependent differences in the role of ATM in insulin action demonstrate a role of ATM in insulin-stimulated phosphorylation of Akt (in C2C12 and RD cells) but also allow the elucidation of a novel, Akt-independent role of ATM (in L6 myotubes and mouse soleus, at the level of AS160) in insulin signalling.

Biomarkers for early and late stage chronic allograft nephropathy by proteogenomic profiling of peripheral blood

Background

Despite significant improvements in life expectancy of kidney transplant patients due to advances in surgery and immunosuppression, Chronic Allograft Nephropathy (CAN) remains a daunting problem. A complex network of cellular mechanisms in both graft and peripheral immune compartments complicates the non-invasive diagnosis of CAN, which still requires biopsy histology. This is compounded by non-immunological factors contributing to graft injury. There is a pressing need to identify and validate minimally invasive biomarkers for CAN to serve as early predictors of graft loss and as metrics for managing long-term immunosuppression.

Methods

We used DNA microarrays, tandem mass spectroscopy proteomics and bioinformatics to identify genomic and proteomic markers of mild and moderate/severe CAN in peripheral blood of two distinct cohorts (n = 77 total) of kidney transplant patients with biopsy-documented histology.

Findings

Gene expression profiles reveal over 2400 genes for mild CAN, and over 700 for moderate/severe CAN. A consensus analysis reveals 393 (mild) and 63 (moderate/severe) final candidates as CAN markers with predictive accuracy of 80% (mild) and 92% (moderate/severe). Proteomic profiles show over 500 candidates each, for both stages of CAN including 302 proteins unique to mild and 509 unique to moderate/severe CAN.

Conclusions

This study identifies several unique signatures of transcript and protein biomarkers with high predictive accuracies for mild and moderate/severe CAN, the most common cause of late allograft failure. These biomarkers are the necessary first step to a proteogenomic classification of CAN based on peripheral blood profiling and will be the targets of a prospective clinical validation study.

Malonyl coenzyme A affects insulin-stimulated glucose transport in myotubes

There seems to be an association between increased concentrations of malonyl coenzyme A (malonyl CoA) in skeletal muscle and diabetes and/or insulin resistance. The purpose of the current study was to test the hypothesis that treatments designed to manipulate malonyl CoA concentrations would affect insulin-stimulated glucose transport in cultured C2C12 myotubes. We assessed glucose transport after polyamine-mediated delivery of malonyl CoA to myotubes, after incubation with dichloroacetate (which reportedly increases malonyl CoA levels), or after exposure of myotubes to 2-bromopalmitate, a carnitine palmitoyl transferase I inhibitor. All three of these treatments prevented stimulation of glucose transport by insulin. We also assayed glucose transport after 30 min of inhibition of acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase (ACC), the enzyme which catalyzes the production of malonyl CoA. Three unrelated ACC inhibitors (diclofop, clethodim, and Pfizer CP-640186) all enhanced insulin-stimulated glucose transport. However, none of the treatments designed to manipulate malonyl CoA concentrations altered markers of proximal insulin signaling through Akt. The findings support the hypothesis that acute changes in malonyl CoA concentrations affect insulin action in muscle cells but suggest that the effects do not involve alterations in proximal insulin signaling.

Potentiation of insulin-stimulated glucose transport by the AMP-activated protein kinase

Data from the use of activators and inhibitors of the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) suggest that AMPK increases sensitivity of glucose transport to stimulation by insulin in muscle cells. We assayed insulin action after adenoviral (Ad) transduction of constitutively active (CA; a truncated form of AMPKalpha(1)) and dominant-negative (DN; which depletes endogenous AMPKalpha) forms of AMPKalpha (Ad-AMPKalpha-CA and Ad-AMPKalpha-DN, respectively) into C(2)C(12) myotubes. Compared with control (Ad-green fluorescent protein), Ad-AMPK-CA increased the ability of insulin to stimulate glucose transport. The increased insulin action in cells expressing AMPK-CA was suppressed by compound C (an AMPK inhibitor). Exposure of cells to 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1beta-D-ribofuranoside (an AMPK activator) increased insulin action in uninfected myotubes and myotubes transduced with green fluorescent protein but not in Ad-AMPK-DN-infected myotubes. In Ad-AMPK-CA-transduced cells, serine phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate 1 was decreased at a mammalian target of rapamycin (or p70 S6 kinase) target site that has been reported to be associated with insulin resistance. These data suggest that, in myotubes, activated AMPKalpha(1) is sufficient to increase insulin action and that the presence of functional AMPKalpha is required for 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1beta,D-ribofuranoside-related increases in insulin action.

Possibility of autocrine beta-adrenergic signaling in C2C12 myotubes

Levodopa reportedly inhibits insulin action in skeletal muscle. Here we show that C2C12 myotubes produce levodopa and that insulin-stimulated glucose transport is enhanced when endogenous levodopa is depleted. Exogenous levodopa prevented the stimulation of glucose transport by insulin (P < 0.05) and increased cAMP concentrations (P < 0.05). The decrease in insulin-stimulated glucose transport caused by levodopa was attenuated by propranolol (a beta-adrenergic antagonist) and prevented by NSD-1015 (NSD), an inhibitor of DOPA decarboxylase (DDC; converts levodopa to dopamine). Propranolol and NSD both prevented levodopa-related increases in [cAMP]. However, the effects of levodopa were unlikely to be dependent on the conversion of levodopa to catecholamines because we could detect neither DDC in myotubes nor catecholamines in media after incubation of myotubes with levodopa. The data suggest the possibility of novel autocrine beta-adrenergic action in C2C12 myotubes in which levodopa, produced by myotubes, could have hormone-like effects that impinge on glucose metabolism.

Potential Role of the AMP-activated Protein Kinase in Regulation of Insulin Action

Because of the predominant role of skeletal muscle in insulin-stimulated clearance of blood glucose, understanding mechanisms for increasing the ability of muscle to respond to insulin could potentially lead to novel strategies for treatment or prevention of diabetes. Recently, the AMP activated protein kinase (AMPK) has emerged as a promising candidate for potentiation of insulin action. Several antidiabetic drugs have been shown to activate AMPK, cellular stresses such as exercise that increase AMPK activity also increase insulin action, and several downstream targets of AMPK seem to be involved in regulation of insulin action. Although the picture is currently incomplete, it seems possible that AMPK or one of its effectors is a positive regulator of insulin-stimulated glucose transport. In addition to discussion of the latest literature regarding AMPK and insulin action, this review includes a non-technical summary for students, academics from other fields, interested professionals, and the general public.

Muscle contractions, AICAR, and insulin cause phosphorylation of an AMPK-related kinase

We hypothesized that AMP-activated protein kinase-related kinase 5 (ARK5)/novel kinase family 1 (NUAK1), an AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-related kinase that has been found to be stimulated by protein kinase B (Akt), would be expressed in rat skeletal muscle and activated by electrically elicited contractions, 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1-beta-d-ribofuranoside (AICAR), or insulin. We verified expression of ARK5 in muscle through RT-PCR and Western blot. Cross-reactivity of ARK5 immunoprecipitates with antibodies against phospho-AMPK was increased by approximately 30% by muscle contractions and approximately 60% by incubation of muscle with AICAR. AMPK was not detected in the ARK5 immunoprecipitates. Despite the apparent increase in phosphorylation of ARK5 at a site essential to its activation, neither contractions nor AICAR increased ARK5 activity. For muscles from animals injected with saline or insulin, we probed nonimmunoprecipitated samples in sequence for phosphotyrosine (P-Tyr), ARK5, and phosphorylated substrates of Akt (P-AS) and found that the ARK5 band could be precisely superimposed on phosphoprotein bands from the P-Tyr and P-AS blots. In the band corresponding to ARK5, insulin increased P-Tyr content by approximately 45% and cross-reactivity with the antibody against P-AS by approximately threefold. We also detected ARK5 in phosphotyrosine immunoprecipitates. Our data suggest that increased phosphorylation of ARK5 by muscle contractions or exposure to AICAR is insufficient to activate ARK5 in skeletal muscle, suggesting that some other modification (e.g., phosphorylation on tyrosine or by Akt) may be necessary to its activity in muscle.

Type I diabetes affects skeletal muscle glutamine uptake in a fiber-specific manner

Skeletal muscle serves as the body's major glutamine repository, and releases glutamine at enhanced rates during diabetes, but whether all muscles are equally affected is unknown. System N(m) activity mediates most trans-sarcolemmal glutamine movement, and although two System N (SN) isoforms have been identified (SN1/sodium-coupled neutral amino acid transporter or System N and A transporters [SNAT]-3; and SN2/SNAT5), their expression in skeletal muscle remains controversial. Here, the impact of Type I diabetes on glutamine uptake and System N transporter expression were examined in fast- and slow-twitch skeletal muscle from spontaneously diabetic (BB/Wor-DP) rats. Net glutamine uptake in fast-twitch fibers was decreased 75%-95%, but enhanced more than 2-fold in slow-twitch muscle from diabetic animals relative to nondiabetic controls. Both SNAT3 and SNAT5 mRNA were expressed in both muscle fiber types and their abundance was unaffected by diabetes. This represents the first report of differential fiber-specific effects of diabetes on skeletal muscle glutamine transport and the co-expression of distinct System N transporters in skeletal muscle.

AICAR and hyperosmotic stress increase insulin-stimulated glucose transport

Sensitivity of glucose transport to stimulation by insulin has been shown to occur concomitant with activation of the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in skeletal muscle, suggesting a role of AMPK in regulation of insulin action. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate a possible role of AMPK in potentiation of insulin action in muscle cells. The experimental model involved insulin-responsive C2C12 myotubes that exhibit a twofold increase in glucose transport in the presence of insulin. Treatment of myotubes with the AMPK activator 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1-beta-D-ribofuranoside (AICAR), followed by a 2-h recovery, augmented the ability of insulin to stimulate glucose transport. Similarly, incubation in hyperosmotic medium, another AMPK-activating treatment, acted synergistically with insulin to stimulate glucose transport. Furthermore, the increase in insulin action caused by hyperosmotic stress was prevented by inclusion of compound C, an AMPK inhibitor, in hyperosmotic medium. In addition, iodotubercidin, a general kinase inhibitor that is effective against AMPK, also prevented the combined effects of insulin and hyperosmotic stress on glucose transport. The new information provided by these data is that previously reported AICAR effects on insulin action are generalizable to myotubes, hyperosmotic stress and insulin synergistically increase glucose transport, and AMPK appears to mediate potentiation of insulin action.

Creatine feeding increases GLUT4 expression in rat skeletal muscle

The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential role of creatine in GLUT4 gene expression in rat skeletal muscle. Female Wistar rats were fed normal rat chow (controls) or chow containing 2% creatine monohydrate ad libitum for 3 wk. GLUT4 protein levels of creatine-fed rats were significantly increased in extensor digitorum longus (EDL), triceps, and epitrochlearis muscles compared with muscles from controls (P < 0.05), and triceps GLUT4 mRNA levels were approximately 100% greater in triceps muscles from creatine-fed rats than in muscles from controls (P < 0.05). In epitrochlearis muscles from creatine-fed animals, glycogen content was approximately 40% greater (P < 0.05), and insulin-stimulated glucose transport rates were higher (P < 0.05) than in epitrochlearis muscles from controls. Despite no changes in [ATP], [creatine], [phosphocreatine], or [AMP], creatine feeding increased AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) phosphorylation by 50% in rat EDL muscle (P < 0.05). Creatinine content of EDL muscle was almost twofold higher for creatine-fed animals than for controls (P < 0.05). Creatine feeding increased protein levels of myocyte enhancer factor 2 (MEF2) isoforms MEF2A ( approximately 70%, P < 0.05), MEF2C ( approximately 60%, P < 0.05), and MEF2D ( approximately 90%, P < 0.05), which are transcription factors that regulate GLUT4 expression, in creatine-fed rat EDL muscle nuclear extracts. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay showed that DNA binding activity of MEF2 was increased by approximately 40% (P < 0.05) in creatine-fed rat EDL compared with controls. Our data suggest that creatine feeding enhances the nuclear content and DNA binding activity of MEF2 isoforms, which is concomitant with an increase in GLUT4 gene expression.