Contraction-induced intracellular signals and their relationship to muscle glut4 concentration. Yaspelkis, B. B., A. L. Castle, R. P. Farrar, and J. L. Ivy. Exercise Physiology and Metabolism Laboratory, Department of Kinesiology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
APStracts 3:0193E, 1996.
This investigation used a model of increased skeletal muscle contractile activity to evaluate whether the adenylate cyclase-cAMP pathway and/or the high energy phosphate state of the muscle might be temporally related to the contraction-induced increase in skeletal muscle GLUT4 protein concentration. Plantaris/gastrocnemius muscles of Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to 3, 7, 14 or 28 d of chronic low-frequency electrical stimulation (10 Hz, 24 h/d). GLUT4 protein concentration was slightly reduced following 3 d of electrical stimulation, similar to control values at 7 d and significantly elevated above control at 14 d (53%, p<0.05) and 28 d (338%, P<0.05) of stimulation. ATP, creatine phosphate, creatine and inorganic phosphate were inversely related to GLUT4 protein concentration. Adenylate cyclase activity increased with electrical stimulation and was significantly related to the increased GLUT4 protein. cAMP was significantly increased at 14 d of stimulation and remained elevated through 28 d. These results demonstrate that both the adenylate cyclase-cAMP pathway and the high energy phosphate state of the muscle are temporally related to elevations in skeletal muscle GLUT4 protein concentration in response to chronic low -frequency electrical stimulation and, as such, suggest that both may comprise a component of the intracellular signal that regulates the contraction-induced increase in skeletal muscle GLUT4 protein concentration.

Received 22 April 1996; accepted in final form 28 August 1996.
APS Manuscript Number E201-6.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Endocrinol. Metab.).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 7 October 1996