DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-42125/v1
Background
Insulin resistance in skeletal muscle is a key feature of the pre-diabetic state, hypertension, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular diseases, and also predicts type 2 diabetes. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms are still poorly understood.
Methods
To explore these mechanisms, we related global skeletal muscle gene expression profiling of 38 non-diabetic men to physiological measures of insulin sensitivity.
Results
We identified 70 genes positively and 110 genes inversely correlated with insulin sensitivity in human skeletal muscle, identifying autophagy-related genes as positively correlated with insulin sensitivity. Replication in an independent study of 9 non-diabetic men resulted in 10 overlapping genes that strongly correlated with insulin sensitivity, including CPT1B and SIRT2 , involved in lipid metabolism, and FBXW5 that regulates mammalian target-of-rapamycin (mTOR) and autophagy. The expression of CPT1B , SIRT2 and FBXW5 was also positively correlated with the expression of key genes promoting the phenotype of an insulin sensitive myocyte e.g. PPARGC1A .
Conclusions
These data suggest that activation of genes involved in lipid metabolism, e.g. CPT1B and SIRT2 , and genes regulating autophagy and mTOR signaling, e.g. FBXW5 , are associated with increased insulin sensitivity in human skeletal muscle, reflecting a highly flexible nutrient sensing.
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