flavin-adenine-dinucleotide and Insulin-Resistance

The transition from young to adult age is associated with decreased insulin sensitivity. To investigate whether changes in skeletal muscle mitochondrial function could be involved in the development of insulin resistance, we measured the oxidative capacity and energetic efficiency of subsarcolemmal and intermyofibrillar mitochondria isolated from the skeletal muscle of 60- and 180-day-old rats. Mitochondrial efficiency was tested by measuring the degree of thermodynamic coupling and optimal thermodynamic efficiency, as well as mitochondrial proton leak, which was determined in both the absence (basal) and the presence (fatty acid induced) of palmitate. Serum glucose, insulin, and HOMA index were also measured. The results show that in adult rats, concomitant with increased HOMA index, skeletal muscle mitochondria display higher respiratory capacity and energy efficiency. In fact, thermodynamic coupling and optimal thermodynamic efficiency significantly increased and fatty acid-induced proton leak was significantly lower in the skeletal muscle mitochondria from adult than in younger rats. A deleterious consequence of increased mitochondrial efficiency would be a reduced utilization of energy substrates, especially fatty acids, leading to intracellular triglyceride accumulation and lipotoxicity, thus contributing to the onset of skeletal muscle insulin resistance.

Topics: Adult; Aged; Aging; Animals; Flavin-Adenine Dinucleotide; Humans; Insulin Resistance; Lipid Metabolism; Middle Aged; Mitochondria, Muscle; Models, Animal; Muscle, Skeletal; Myofibrils; NAD; Oxygen Consumption; Rats; Risk Factors; Sarcolemma

In vitro, streptozotocin (1.0-2.0 mM) fails to exert any immediate effect on the activity of FAD-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase in either pancreatic islet homogenate or freshly isolated intact islets. However, when injected in vivo, streptozotocin (40 mg/kg body weight) lowers the specific activity of the FAD-linked enzyme in islet homogenates within 24 h, whilst causing little change in 2-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase and increasing glutamate dehydrogenase islet activity. In animals which became frankly hyperglycaemic as the result of the injection of streptozotocin, the activity of islet FAD-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase, measured 2 weeks after administration of the B-cell cytotoxic agent, was decreased to 10-20% of its control value. Neither insulin treatment nor riboflavin supplementation affected this enzymic defect. Even when the animals injected with streptozotocin remained virtually euglycaemic, the activity of islet FAD-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase was markedly decreased. This coincided with a preferential impairment of aerobic glycolysis, as judged from the ratio between D-[3,4-14C]glucose oxidation and D-[5-3H] glucose utilization by the islets. It is proposed, therefore, that the administration of sub-diabetogenic amounts of streptozotocin to adult rats represents an alternative and easier approach to the study of B-cell dysfunction in this model of type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes than does streptozotocin injection in neonatal rats.

Topics: Alloxan; Animals; Blood Glucose; Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental; Female; Flavin-Adenine Dinucleotide; Glucose; Glutamate Dehydrogenase; Glycerolphosphate Dehydrogenase; Glycolysis; Insulin; Insulin Resistance; Islets of Langerhans; Ketoglutarate Dehydrogenase Complex; Kinetics; Rats; Riboflavin