Decreased insulin-stimulated GLUT-4 translocation in glycogen-supercompensated muscles of exercised rats

Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110 It was recently found that the effect of an exercise-induced increase in muscle GLUT-4 on insulin-stimulated glucose transport is masked by a decreased responsiveness to insulin in glycogen-supercompensated muscle. We evaluated the role of hexosamines in this decrease in insulin responsiveness and found that UDP- N -acetyl hexosamine concentrations were not higher in glycogen-supercompensated muscles than in control muscles with a low glycogen content. We determined whether the smaller increase in glucose transport is due to translocation of fewer GLUT-4 to the cell surface with the 2- N -4-(1-azi-2,2,2-trifluroethyl)-benzoyl-1,3-bis( D -mannose-4-yloxy)-2-propylamine (ATB-[2- 3 H]BMPA) photolabeling technique. The insulin-induced increase in GLUT-4 at the cell surface was no greater in glycogen-supercompensated exercised muscle than in muscles of sedentary controls and only 50% as great as in exercised muscles with a low glycogen content. We conclude that the decreased insulin responsiveness of glucose transport in glycogen-supercompensated muscle is not due to increased accumulation of hexosamine biosynthetic pathway end products and that the smaller increase in glucose transport is mediated by translocation of fewer GLUT-4 to the cell surface. exercise training; glucose transport; hexosamine; insulin responsiveness