Regulation of hexokinase ii activity and expression in human muscle by moderate exercise. Koval, Janice A., Ralph A. Defronzo, Robert M. Oaedoherty, Richard Printz, Hossein Ardehali, Daryl K. Granner, and Lawrence J. Mandarino. Division of Diabetes, Department of Medicine and the Department of Biochemistry, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas; the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee 37232-0615
APStracts 4:0251E, 1997.
A single bout of exercise increases the rate of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and metabolism in skeletal muscle. Exercise also increases insulin-stimulated glucose 6-phosphate in skeletal muscle, suggesting that exercise increases hexokinase activity. Within three hours, exercise increases hexokinase II (HK II) mRNA and activity in skeletal muscle from rats. It is not known, however, if a single bout of moderate intensity exercise increases HKII expression in humans. The present study was undertaken to answer this question. Six subjects had percutaneous biopsies of the vastus lateralis muscle before and three hours after a single one hour session of moderate intensity, aerobic (60% of VO2max) exercise. Glycogen synthase, HKI, and HKII activities as well as HKI and HKII mRNA content were determined from the muscle biopsy specimens. The fractional velocity of glycogen synthase was increased by 446 ( 84 % after exercise (P < 0.005). Hexokinase II activity in the soluble fraction of the homogenates increased from 1.2 ( 0.4 to 4.5 ( 1.6 pmole/min.(g (P < 0.05) but was unchanged in the particulate fraction (4.3 ( 1.3 vs. 5.3 ( 1.5). Hexokinase I activity in neither the soluble nor particulate fraction changed after exercise. Relative to a 28S rRNA control signal, HKII mRNA increased from 0.091 ( 0.02 to 0.195 ( 0.037 (P < 0.05), while HKI mRNA was unchanged (0.414 ( 0.061 vs. 0.498 ( 0.134, P < 0.20). The increase in HKII activity after moderate exercise in healthy subjects could be one factor responsible for the enhanced rate of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake seen following exercise.

Received 4 August 1997; accepted in final form 6 November 1997.
APS Manuscript Number E364-7.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Endocrinol. Metab.).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1997 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 14 November 1997