Diabetes, Vol 44, Issue 6 718-720, Copyright © 1995 by American Diabetes Association
Amelioration of high-fat feeding-induced insulin resistance in skeletal muscle with the antiglucocorticoid RU486
M Kusunoki, GJ Cooney, T Hara and LH Storlien
First Department of Internal Medicine, Aichi Medical University, Nagoya, Japan.
Fat feeding produces whole-body insulin resistance and decreased glucose
uptake in muscle tissue of rats. To examine the effect of glucocorticoid
blockade on the insulin resistance caused by high-fat feeding, four groups
of rats were fed diets high in starch (70% of calories) or fat (59% of
calories) for 4 weeks with or without the antiglucocorticoid RU486 (69.8
mumol.kg-1.day-1) in the food. Whole-body insulin action was assessed by
the euglycemic clamp technique at an upper physiological insulin level with
bolus 2-[3H]deoxyglucose to determine individual tissue insulin-stimulated
glucose uptake. Whole-body glucose utilization (clamp glucose infusion rate
[GIR]) was decreased by high-fat feeding (GIR 68.3 +/- 12.2 vs. 182.6 +/-
12.8 mumol.kg-1.min-1 for the starch-fed group; P < 0.001). Addition of
RU486 to the diet significantly improved (GIR 133.9 +/- 12.8
mumol.kg-1.min-1; P < 0.01), but did not fully reverse, the insulin
resistance caused by fat feeding. RU486 was without effect in the
starch-fed rats. In skeletal muscles, RU486 ameliorated 62 and 68% of the
insulin resistance produced by fat feeding in red quadriceps and extensor
digitorum longus hindlimb muscles, respectively, but had no effect in heart
or white adipose tissue. These results suggest that glucocorticoids play,
in a tissue-specific manner, a role in the maintenance and/or production of
insulin resistance produced by high-fat feeding.