The purpose of this study was to discern cellular mechanisms that contribute to the suppression of lipid oxidation in the skeletal muscle of obese individuals. Muscle was obtained from obese [body mass index (BMI), 38.3 +/- 3.1 kg/m(2)] and lean (BMI, 23.8 +/- 0.9 kg/m(2)) women, and fatty acid oxidation was studied by measuring (14)CO(2) production from (14)C-labeled fatty acids. Palmitate oxidation, which is at least partially dependent on carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1 (CPT-1) activity, was depressed (P < 0.05) by approximately 50% with obesity (6.8 +/- 2.2 vs. 13.7 +/- 1.4 nmole CO(2).g(-1).h(-1)). The CPT-1-independent event of palmitoyl carnitine oxidation was also depressed (P < 0.01) by approximately 45%. There were significant negative relationships (P < 0.05) for adiposity with palmitate (r = -0.76) and palmitoyl carnitine (r = -0.82) oxidation. Muscle CPT-1 and citrate synthase activity, an index of mitochondrial content, were also significantly (P < 0.05) reduced ( approximately 35%) with obesity. CPT-1 (r = -0.48) and citrate synthase (r = -0.65) activities were significantly (P < 0.05) related to adiposity. These data suggest that lesions at CPT-1 and post-CPT-1 events, such as mitochondrial content, contribute to the reduced reliance on fat oxidation evident in human skeletal muscle with obesity.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-␥ co-activator 1␣ (PGC1␣) is a promiscuous co-activator that plays a key role in regulating mitochondrial biogenesis and fuel homeostasis. Emergent evidence links decreased skeletal muscle PGC1␣ activity and coincident impairments in mitochondrial performance to the development of insulin resistance in humans. Here we used rodent models to demonstrate that muscle mitochondrial efficiency is compromised by diet-induced obesity and is subsequently rescued by exercise training. Chronic high fat feeding caused accelerated rates of incomplete fatty acid oxidation and accumulation of ␤-oxidative intermediates. The capacity of muscle mitochondria to fully oxidize a heavy influx of fatty acid depended on factors such as fiber type and exercise training and was positively correlated with expression levels of PGC1␣. Likewise, an efficient lipid-induced substrate switch in cultured myocytes depended on adenovirus-mediated increases in PGC1␣ expression. Our results supported a novel paradigm in which a high lipid supply, occurring under conditions of low PGC1␣, provokes a disconnect between mitochondrial ␤-oxidation and tricarboxylic acid cycle activity. Conversely, the metabolic remodeling that occurred in response to PGC1␣ overexpression favored a shift from incomplete to complete ␤-oxidation. We proposed that PGC1␣ enables muscle mitochondria to better cope with a high lipid load, possibly reflecting a fundamental metabolic benefit of exercise training.Obesity and type 2 diabetes are two closely associated diseases that continue to affect Westernized societies at epidemic rates (1). Results from both epidemiological and animal studies suggest that the risk of developing these diseases is increased by consumption of a high fat diet (2), which has been attributed in part to increased intramuscular triacylglycerol storage and adverse changes in skeletal muscle energy metabolism (3). Moreover, mounting evidence from animal and cellbased models indicates that lipid oversupply to skeletal muscle results in functional perturbations that eventually manifest as impaired insulin action (2, 4, 5). Together, these and other reports have established a compelling connection between muscle lipid dysregulation and impaired metabolic control at both the cellular and systemic levels. Despite intense investigation, a clear understanding of the biochemical and molecular mechanisms that mediate lipid-induced muscle dysfunction has remained elusive.Similar to high fat feeding, exercise training increases skeletal muscle supply and storage of lipid substrates (6). However, in contrast to the adverse events provoked by a high fat diet, exercise is known to promote muscle as well as whole body metabolic fitness (7). These observations suggest that physical activity somehow enhances the capacity of the muscle to tolerate and/or adapt to a high lipid load. Indeed, contractile activity leads to dramatic adjustments in oxidative fuel metabolism that are largely mediated by an increase in muscle mitochondria...

; 10.1152/ajpendo.00416.2001.-The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that muscle fiber type is related to obesity. Fiber type was compared 1) in lean and obese women, 2) in Caucasian (C) and African-American (AA) women, and 3) in obese individuals who lost weight after gastric bypass surgery. When lean (body mass index 24.0 Ϯ 0.9 kg/m 2 , n ϭ 28) and obese (34.8 Ϯ 0.9 kg/m 2 , n ϭ 25) women were compared, there were significant (P Ͻ 0.05) differences in muscle fiber type. The obese women possessed fewer type I (41.5 Ϯ 1.8 vs. 54.6 Ϯ 1.8%) and more type IIb (25.1 Ϯ 1.5 vs. 14.4 Ϯ 1.5%) fibers than the lean women. When ethnicity was accounted for, the percentage of type IIb fibers in obese AA was significantly higher than in obese C (31.0 Ϯ 2.4% vs. 19.2 Ϯ 1.9%); fewer type I fibers were also found in obese AA (34.5 Ϯ 2.8% vs. 48.6 Ϯ 2.2%). These data are consistent with the higher incidence of obesity and greater weight gain reported in AA women. With weight loss intervention, there was a positive relationship (r ϭ 0.72, P Ͻ 0.005) between the percentage of excess weight loss and the percentage of type I fibers in morbidly obese patients. These findings indicate that there is a relationship between muscle fiber type and obesity. adiposity; African-American; insulin resistance; morbid obesity; skeletal muscle SKELETAL MUSCLE IS A HETEROGENEOUS organ consisting of different muscle fiber phenotypes. In human skeletal muscle, histochemical staining for pH-sensitive myosin ATPase activity has revealed two major classifications of fiber type, the type I and type II fibers (3,28,31). The fast-twitch, type II fibers can be broadly categorized into type IIa and type IIb fibers, although other subclasses exist (3,29,31). The type I, or slow-twitch, muscle fibers tend to be oxidative and vascularized, whereas the type IIb fibers (fast twitch) are glycolytic in nature (28, 31). The type I fibers are also insulin sensitive compared with type II muscle (8,13,17).In humans, there can be substantial heterogeneity of muscle fiber types within a given mixed muscle group. Simoneau and Bouchard (32) concluded that, in the vastus lateralis, Ն25% of the North American Caucasian population possessed either less than 35% or more than 65% type I fibers; a range of 13-98% type I fibers has been reported (31). Several factors may be linked with such variance. We have observed that obese individuals exhibit fewer type I and more type IIb muscle fibers than lean subjects (9). Other research has reported a negative relationship between adiposity and the relative percentage of type I muscle fibers (9, 21, 36) and an increased percentage of type IIb muscle fibers in patients with type 2 diabetes (9, 23), in their insulin-resistant offspring (27), and in obese subjects (18,19,21,23). Such findings make it tempting to speculate that there is a relationship between muscle fiber composition and obesity.The purpose of the current study was to test the hypothesis that muscle fiber type is related to obesity. We tested this hypothesis in...

To determine whether the impaired insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in obese individuals is associated with altered insulin receptor signaling, we measured both glucose uptake and early steps in the insulin action pathway in intact strips of human skeletal muscle. Biopsies of rectus abdominus muscle were taken from eight obese and eight control subjects undergoing elective surgery (body mass index 52.9±3.6 vs 25.7±0.9). Insulin-stimulated 2-deoxyglucose uptake was 53% lower in muscle strips from obese subjects. Additional muscle strips were incubated in the basal state or with i0-7 M insulin for 2, 15, or 30 min. In the lean subjects, tyrosine phosphorylation of the insulin receptor and insulin receptor substrate-i (IRS-1), measured by immunoblotting with anti-phosphotyrosine antibodies, was significantly increased by insulin at all time points. In the skeletal muscle from the obese subjects, insulin was less effective in stimulating tyrosine phosphorylation (maximum receptor and IRS-1 phosphorylation decreased by 35 and 38%, respectively). Insulin stimulation of IRS-1 immunoprecipitable phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase) activity also was markedly lower in obese subjects compared with controls (10-vs 35-fold above basal, respectively). In addition, the obese subjects had a lower abundance of the insulin receptor, IRS-1, and the p85 subunit of PI 3-kinase (55, 54, and 64% of nonobese, respectively). We conclude that impaired insulinstimulated glucose uptake in skeletal muscle from severely obese subjects is accompanied by a deficiency in insulin receptor signaling, which may contribute to decreased insulin action. (J. Clin. Invest. 1995.95:2195-2204 Key words:

Ablation of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR) ␣, a lipid-activated transcription factor that regulates expression of ␤-oxidative genes, results in profound metabolic abnormalities in liver and heart. In the present study we used PPAR␣ knockout (KO) mice to determine whether this transcription factor is essential for regulating fuel metabolism in skeletal muscle. When animals were challenged with exhaustive exercise or starvation, KO mice exhibited lower serum levels of glucose, lactate, and ketones and higher nonesterified fatty acids than wild type (WT) littermates. During exercise, KO mice exhausted earlier than WT and exhibited greater rates of glycogen depletion in liver but not skeletal muscle. Fatty acid oxidative capacity was similar between muscles of WT and KO when animals were fed and only 28% lower in KO muscles when animals were starved. Exercise-induced regulation and starvation-induced regulation of pyruvate-dehydrogenase kinase 4 and uncoupling protein 3, two classical and robustly responsive PPAR␣ target genes, were similar between WT and KO in skeletal muscle but markedly different between genotypes in heart. Real time quantitative PCR analyses showed that unlike in liver and heart, in mouse skeletal muscle PPAR␦ is severalfold more abundant than either PPAR␣ or PPAR␥. In both human and rodent myocytes, the highly selective PPAR␦ agonist GW742 increased fatty acid oxidation about 2-fold and induced expression of several lipid regulatory genes, including pyruvate-dehydrogenase kinase 4 and uncoupling protein 3, responses that were similar to those elicited by the PPAR␣ agonist GW647. These results show redundancy in the functions of PPARs ␣ and ␦ as transcriptional regulators of fatty acid homeostasis and suggest that in skeletal muscle high levels of the ␦-subtype can compensate for deficiency of PPAR␣.Peroxisome proliferator activated receptors (PPARs) 1 ␣, ␦, and ␥ comprise a family of nuclear hormone receptors that regulate systemic fatty acid metabolism via ligand-dependent transcriptional activation of target genes (1). Strong evidence indicates that their endogenous ligands consist of fatty acids and/or lipid metabolites and that they function to mediate adaptive metabolic responses to changes in systemic fuel availability (1, 2). PPAR␣, which is expressed most abundantly in tissues that are characterized by high rates of fatty acid oxidation (FAO), is considered the primary subtype that mediates lipid-induced activation of FAO genes (3). This premise is based largely on studies of PPAR␣ knockout (KO) mice, which, compared with wild type (WT) littermates, exhibit low rates of ␤-oxidation and abnormal accumulation of neutral lipids in both cardiac and hepatic tissues (4, 5). The metabolic phenotype of KO mice is associated with decreased expression of FAO genes and failure of liver and heart to induce ␤-oxidative pathways in response to physiological or pharmacological perturbations in lipid metabolism (4 -6). Taken together, these studies indicate that, at least in rodents,...