The pyridine nucleotides, NAD(+) and NADH, are coenzymes that provide oxidoreductive power for the generation of ATP by mitochondria. In skeletal muscle, exercise perturbs the levels of NAD(+), NADH, ...and consequently, the NAD(+)/NADH ratio, and initial research in this area focused on the contribution of redox control to ATP production. More recently, numerous signaling pathways that are sensitive to perturbations in NAD(+)(H) have come to the fore, as has an appreciation for the potential importance of compartmentation of NAD(+)(H) metabolism and its subsequent effects on various signaling pathways. These pathways, which include the sirtuin (SIRT) proteins SIRT1 and SIRT3, the poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) proteins PARP1 and PARP2, and COOH-terminal binding protein (CtBP), are of particular interest because they potentially link changes in cellular redox state to both immediate, metabolic-related changes and transcriptional adaptations to exercise. In this review, we discuss what is known, and not known, about the contribution of NAD(+)(H) metabolism and these aforementioned proteins to mitochondrial adaptations to acute and chronic endurance exercise.
Fatty acid oversupply is a key mediator of skeletal muscle insulin resistance in obesity, primarily via accumulation of fatty acid metabolites and activation of proinflammatory pathways. Herein, we ...demonstrate that fatty acid-induced insulin resistance in humans is completely prevented the day after 1 session of endurance exercise. Because skeletal muscle is the primary site for systemic glucose disposal and is highly susceptible to impaired insulin action by elevated fatty acid availability, we obtained skeletal muscle samples to investigate possible mechanisms mediating this protective effect of exercise. Prevention of fatty acid-induced insulin resistance after exercise accompanied enhanced skeletal muscle protein expression of key lipogenic enzymes and an increase in muscle triglyceride synthesis. Partitioning more fatty acids toward triglyceride synthesis within muscle reduced the accumulation of fatty acid metabolites and suppressed the proinflammatory response in skeletal muscle, as evidenced by decreased phosphorylation and activation of JNK and increased abundance of inhibitor of NF-kappaB alpha (I kappa B-alpha) and I kappa B-beta. We believe this is the first study to demonstrate that 1 session of exercise completely reverses fatty acid-induced insulin resistance in humans. Reversal of insulin resistance accompanied enhanced lipogenic capacity within skeletal muscle, reduced accumulation of highly bioactive fatty acid metabolites, and suppressed activation of proinflammatory pathways known to impair insulin action.
Chronic inflammation is an important etiology underlying obesity-related disorders such as insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, and recent findings indicate that the macrophage can be the ...initiating cell type responsible for this chronic inflammatory state. The mammalian silent information regulator 2 homolog SIRT1 modulates several physiological processes important for life span, and a potential role of SIRT1 in the regulation of insulin sensitivity has been shown. However, with respect to inflammation, the role of SIRT1 in regulating the proinflammatory pathway within macrophages is poorly understood. Here, we show that knockdown of SIRT1 in the mouse macrophage RAW264.7 cell line and in intraperitoneal macrophages broadly activates the JNK and IKK inflammatory pathways and increases LPS-stimulated TNFalpha secretion. Moreover, gene expression profiles reveal that SIRT1 knockdown leads to an increase in inflammatory gene expression. We also demonstrate that SIRT1 activators inhibit LPS-stimulated inflammatory pathways, as well as secretion of TNFalpha, in a SIRT1-dependent manner in RAW264.7 cells and in primary intraperitoneal macrophages. Treatment of Zucker fatty rats with a SIRT1 activator leads to greatly improved glucose tolerance, reduced hyperinsulinemia, and enhanced systemic insulin sensitivity during glucose clamp studies. These in vivo insulin-sensitizing effects were accompanied by a reduction in tissue inflammation markers and a decrease in the adipose tissue macrophage proinflammatory state, fully consistent with the in vitro effects of SIRT1 in macrophages. In conclusion, these results define a novel role for SIRT1 as an important regulator of macrophage inflammatory responses in the context of insulin resistance and raise the possibility that targeting of SIRT1 might be a useful strategy for treating the inflammatory component of metabolic diseases.
Chronic low-grade inflammation, particularly in adipose tissue, is an important modulator of obesity-induced insulin resistance. The Toll-like receptor 4 (Tlr4) is a key initiator of inflammatory ...responses in macrophages. We performed bone marrow transplantation (BMT) of Tlr4lps-del or control C57Bl/10J donor cells into irradiated wild-type C57Bl6 recipient mice to generate hematopoietic cell-specific Tlr4 deletion mutant (BMT-
Tlr4
−/−) and control (BMT-WT) mice. After 16 weeks of a high-fat diet (HFD), BMT-WT mice developed obesity, hyperinsulinemia, glucose intolerance, and insulin resistance. In contrast, BMT-
Tlr4
−/− mice became obese but did not develop fasting hyperinsulinemia and had improved hepatic and adipose insulin sensitivity during euglycemic clamp studies, compared to HFD BMT-WT controls. HFD BMT-
Tlr4
−/− mice also showed markedly reduced adipose tissue inflammatory markers and macrophage content. In summary, our results indicate that Tlr4 signaling in hematopoietic-derived cells is important for the development of hepatic and adipose tissue insulin resistance in obese mice.
During early fasting, increases in skeletal muscle proteolysis liberate free amino acids for hepatic gluconeogenesis in response to pancreatic glucagon. Hepatic glucose output diminishes during the ...late protein-sparing phase of fasting, when ketone body production by the liver supplies compensatory fuel for glucose-dependent tissues. Glucagon stimulates the gluconeogenic program by triggering the dephosphorylation and nuclear translocation of the CREB regulated transcription coactivator 2 (CRTC2; also known as TORC2), while parallel decreases in insulin signalling augment gluconeogenic gene expression through the dephosphorylation and nuclear shuttling of forkhead box O1 (FOXO1). Here we show that a fasting-inducible switch, consisting of the histone acetyltransferase p300 and the nutrient-sensing deacetylase sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), maintains energy balance in mice through the sequential induction of CRTC2 and FOXO1. After glucagon induction, CRTC2 stimulated gluconeogenic gene expression by an association with p300, which we show here is also activated by dephosphorylation at Ser 89 during fasting. In turn, p300 increased hepatic CRTC2 activity by acetylating it at Lys 628, a site that also targets CRTC2 for degradation after its ubiquitination by the E3 ligase constitutive photomorphogenic protein (COP1). Glucagon effects were attenuated during late fasting, when CRTC2 was downregulated owing to SIRT1-mediated deacetylation and when FOXO1 supported expression of the gluconeogenic program. Disrupting SIRT1 activity, by liver-specific knockout of the Sirt1 gene or by administration of a SIRT1 antagonist, increased CRTC2 activity and glucose output, whereas exposure to SIRT1 agonists reduced them. In view of the reciprocal activation of FOXO1 and its coactivator peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator-1alpha (PGC-1alpha, encoded by Ppargc1a) by SIRT1 activators, our results illustrate how the exchange of two gluconeogenic regulators during fasting maintains energy balance.
Cellular remodeling in rotator cuff muscles following a massive rotator cuff tear is poorly understood. The aim of the current study was to provide histological evidence to elucidate the mode of ...muscle loss in advanced human rotator cuff disease and to assess tissue-level changes in relation to findings on noninvasive imaging.
Rotator cuff muscle biopsy samples were taken from the scapular fossae from 23 consecutive patients undergoing reverse total shoulder arthroplasty in order to evaluate muscle composition in severe rotator cuff disease. Markers of vascularity; inflammation; fat distribution; and muscle atrophy, degeneration, and regeneration were quantified.
The samples primarily consisted of dense, organized connective tissue (48.2% ± 19.1%) and disorganized, loose connective tissue (36.9% ± 15.9%), with substantially smaller fractions of muscle (10.4% ± 22.0%) and fat (6.5% ± 11.6%). Only 25.8% of the biopsy pool contained any muscle fibers at all. Increased inflammatory cell counts (111.3 ± 81.5 macrophages/mm) and increased vascularization (66.6 ± 38.0 vessels/mm) were observed across biopsies. Muscle fiber degeneration was observed in 90.0% ± 15.6% of observable muscle fascicles, and the percentage of centrally nucleated muscle fibers was pathologically elevated (11.3% ± 6.3%). Fat accumulation was noted in both perifascicular (60.7% ± 41.4%) and intrafascicular (42.2% ± 33.6%) spaces, with evidence that lipid may replace contractile elements without altering muscle organization.
Dramatic degeneration and inflammation of the rotator cuff muscles are characteristics of the most chronic and severe rotator cuff disease states, suggesting that muscle loss is more complicated than, and distinct from, the simple atrophy found in less severe cases.
In order to address degenerative muscle loss, alternative therapeutic approaches directed at muscle regeneration must be considered if muscle function is to be restored in late-stage rotator cuff disease.
Dysregulated lipid metabolism and inflammation are linked to the development of insulin resistance in obesity, and the intracellular accumulation of the sphingolipid ceramide has been implicated in ...these processes. Here, we explored the role of circulating ceramide on the pathogenesis of insulin resistance. Ceramide transported in LDL is elevated in the plasma of obese patients with type 2 diabetes and correlated with insulin resistance but not with the degree of obesity. Treating cultured myotubes with LDL containing ceramide promoted ceramide accrual in cells and was accompanied by reduced insulin-stimulated glucose uptake, Akt phosphorylation, and GLUT4 translocation compared with LDL deficient in ceramide. LDL-ceramide induced a proinflammatory response in cultured macrophages via toll-like receptor-dependent and -independent mechanisms. Finally, infusing LDL-ceramide into lean mice reduced insulin-stimulated glucose uptake, and this was due to impaired insulin action specifically in skeletal muscle. These newly identified roles of LDL-ceramide suggest that strategies aimed at reducing hepatic ceramide production or reducing ceramide packaging into lipoproteins may improve skeletal muscle insulin action.
Skeletal muscle fibers are giant multinucleated cells wherein individual nuclei govern the protein synthesis in a finite volume of cytoplasm; this is termed the myonuclear domain (MND). The factors ...that control MND size remain to be defined. In the present study, we studied the contribution of the NAD+‐dependent deacetylase, sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), to the regulation of nuclear number and MND size. For this, we isolated myofibers from mice with tissue‐specific inactivation (mKO) or inducible overexpression (imOX) of SIRT1 and analyzed the 3D organisation of myonuclei. In imOX mice, the number of nuclei was increased whilst the average MND size was decreased as compared to littermate controls. Our findings were the opposite in mKO mice. Muscle stem cell (satellite cell) numbers were reduced in mKO muscles, a possible explanation for the lower density of myonuclei in these mice; however, no change was observed in imOX mice, suggesting that other factors might also be involved, such as the functional regulation of stem cells/muscle precursors. Interestingly, however, the changes in the MND volume did not impact the force‐generating capacity of muscle fibers. Taken together, our results demonstrate that SIRT1 is a key regulator of MND sizes, although the underlying molecular mechanisms and the cause‐effect relationship between MND and muscle function remain to be fully defined.
Overexpression of SIRT1 increases myonuclear density and thus reduces myonuclear domain sizes; conversely, ablation of SIRT1 decreases myonuclear density and thus increases myonuclear domain volumes. Altered satellite cell numbers might explain such modulation of myonuclear density within muscle fibers.
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