High-fat diet (HFD) feeding causes insulin resistance (IR) in skeletal muscle of mice, which affects skeletal muscle metabolism and function. The involvement of muscle-specific microRNAs in the evolution of skeletal muscle IR during 4, 8, and 12 weeks in HFD-induced obese mice was investigated. After 4 weeks in HFD, mice were obese, hyperglycemic, and hyperinsulinemic; however, their muscles we...

Beta-Guanadinopropionic acid (beta-GPA) feeding leads to reductions in skeletal muscle phosphagen concentrations and has been used as a tool with which to study the effects of energy charge on skeletal muscle metabolism. Supplementing standard rodent diets with beta-GPA leads to increases in mitochondrial enzyme content in fast but not slow-twitch muscles from male rats. Given this apparent dis...

The purpose of the current study was to examine IGFBP-3, -4, and -5 mRNA and protein expression levels as a function of muscle type, age, and regrowth from an immobilization-induced atrophy in Fischer 344 x Brown Norway rats. IGFBP-3 mRNA expression in the 4-mo-old animals was significantly higher in the red and white portions of the gastrocnemius muscle compared with the soleus muscle. However...

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitric oxide (NO) have been implicated in the regulation of skeletal muscle glucose uptake during contraction, and there is evidence that they do so via interaction with AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). In this study, we tested the hypothesis that ROS and NO regulate skeletal muscle glucose uptake during contraction via an AMPK-independent mechanism. Isolat...

The speed of contraction of a skeletal muscle largely depends on the myosin heavy chain isoforms (MyHC), whereas the relaxation is initiated and maintained by the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPases (SERCA). The expression of the slow muscle-type myosin heavy chain I (MyHCI) is entirely dependent on innervation, but, as we show here, innervation is not required for the expression of the slow-ty...

Previous studies have demonstrated that endurance exercise training increases the level of heat shock proteins (HSPs) in skeletal muscles. However, little attention has been drawn to the effects of high intensity-short duration exercise, or sprint- interval training (SIT) on HSP72 level in rat skeletal muscles. This study performed to test the hypothesis that the SIT would induce the HSP72 in f...

This study aimed to examine whether a single ingestion of arginine activates the mammalian target rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) in rat fast- and slow-twitch skeletal muscles. In first experiment, rats were orally administered (3 or 10 mmol/kg body weight) water. The plantaris, gastrocnemius, soleus muscles excised h after administration. Immunoblot analysis showed that administration with higher...

Guinea pig hindlimbs were unilaterally immobilized at resting length to evaluate histochemical, biochemical, and contractile properties of immobilized muscle. Contralateral limbs remained unrestrained. Four weeks later contractile properties were measured under chloral hydrate anesthesia. Average time-to-peak tension of the immobilized soleus was 30% less, whereas that of the gastrocnemius was ...

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) expression in fast rat muscles is approximately fourfold higher than in slow muscles. We examined whether different muscle activation patterns are responsible for this difference and whether the calcineurin signaling pathway is involved in AChE regulation. The slow soleus and fast extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles were directly or indirectly stimulated by a ton...

Fiber type specificity of pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) phosphatase (PDP) was determined in fed (CON) and 48-h food-deprived (FD) rats. PDP activity and isoform protein content were determined in soleus (slow-twitch oxidative), red gastrocnemius (RG; fast-twitch oxidative glycolytic), and white gastrocnemius (WG; fast-twitch glycolytic) muscles. When normalized for mitochondrial volume, there wa...