Regulation of glucose production during intense submaximal exercise in untrained humans. Coggan, Andrew R., Comasio A. Raguso, Amalia Gastaldelli, Bradley D. Williams, and Robert R. Wolfe. Metabolism Unit, Shriners Burns Institute, and Departments of Anesthesiology and Surgery, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77550
APStracts 4:0083E, 1997.
To determine whether alterations in insulin and/or glucagon secretion play an important role in stimulating glucose production (Ra) during intense but submaximal exercise, we studied six untrained subjects during 30 min of cycling at 80% of peak oxygen uptake on two occasions: once under control conditions and once when alterations in insulin and glucagon secretion were prevented using the pancreatic islet clamp technique. In the latter experiments, glucose was infused during exercise to match glycemia with control levels. Glucose kinetics were measured in both trials using a primed, continuous infusion of [6,6-2H]glucose. In the control trial, glucose Ra rose from 11.9+/-0.8 [mu]mol.min-1.kg-1 at rest to 42.5+/-4.3 [mu]mol.min -1.kg-1 by the end of exercise. A similar increment was observed in the islet clamp experiments, with endogenous Ra peaking at 37.2+/-7.9 [mu]mol.min-1.kg-1. This was true even though glucagon concentration did not change from basal and insulin concentration actually rose (the latter apparently due to a decrease in insulin clearance during intense exercise). Thus, neither decrements in insulin or increments in glucagon are apparently required to stimulate glucose Ra during high intensity exercise. Since epinephrine levels rose only slightly, it appears that either neurally-released norepinephrine or some other, as-yet-unidentified factor is responsible for stimulating glucose Ra under the present conditions.

Received 25 November 1996; accepted in final form 3 April 1997.
APS Manuscript Number E586-6.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Endocrinol. Metab.).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1997 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 15 April 1997