Dietary stimulators of GLUT4 expression and translocation in skeletal muscle: A mini‐review

Abstract

Chronic insulin resistance can lead to type II diabetes mellitus, which is also directly influenced by an individual's genetics as well as their lifestyle. Under normal circumstances, insulin facilitates glucose uptake in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue by stimulating glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) translocation and activity. GLUT4 activity is directly correlated with the ability to clear elevated blood glucose and insulin sensitivity. In diabetes, energy excess and prolonged hyperinsulinemia suppress muscle and adipose response to insulin, in part through reduced GLUT4 membrane levels. This work uniquely describes much of the experimental data demonstrating the effects of various dietary components on GLUT4 expression and translocation in skeletal muscle. These observations implicate several individual dietary chemicals as potential adjuvant therapies in the maintenance of diabetes and insulin resistance.

Leucine stimulates PPARβ/δ-dependent mitochondrial biogenesis and oxidative metabolism with enhanced GLUT4 content and glucose uptake in myotubes

“…Another perplexing finding was that leucine-treated cells displayed both increased PGC-1α and GLUT4 expression, which led us to investigate MEF-2 expression (PGC-1α controls GLUT4 expression through regulation of MEF-2 expression) [23]. Despite increased PGC-1α expression, leucine-treated cells exhibited unaltered MEF2 expression, leading us to investigate the effects of leucine on insulin signaling (another potential pathway leading to increased GLUT4 content).…”

Chemical characterization and anti-hyperglycaemic effects of polyphenol enriched longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.) pericarp extracts

“…There is a high relationship between Glut4 activity and Pparγ signalling (Gandhi et al, 2013). It has been reported that a number of natural dietary components, especially some phenolics such as chlorogenic acid could stimulate Glut4 and Pparγ expression, lead to improved insulin sensitivity, and then promote glucose transportation and glucose uptake (Gannon, Conn, & Vaughan, 2015;Wang et al, 2014). In addition, insulin receptor substrate (Irs) proteins have been shown to act as docking proteins for insulin signalling.…”

A novel mutation in Slc2a4 as a mouse model of fatigue

“…Mice from two N ‐ethyl‐ N ‐nitrosourea (ENU) lines show abnormal, low amplitude voluntary wheel‐running activity patterns. Circadian activity patterns are double plotted for ease of visualization, with each horizontal line representing 48 hours and successive days plotted along the Y‐axis. Wheel revolutions are depicted as black marks on the horizontal lines.…”

“…The premature stop introduced into exon 10 of the gene would likely result in the truncation of the protein and absence of the carboxy terminus. There are several important regulatory elements located in this region of the protein that play a role in its subcellular localization and transmission to the plasma membrane in response to circulating insulin, dietary components and metabolites, or exercise‐related signaling pathways . Thus, although it remains to be determined, it is likely that the phenotypes resulting from the presumably truncated form of Slc2a4 are the result of impairments in its cellular localization.…”