Metabolic consequences of intermittent hypoxia

Insulin resistance is being recognized increasingly as the basis for the constellation of metabolic abnormalities that make up the metabolic syndrome, or Syndrome X. Insulin resistance is also the primary risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus, which is currently reaching epidemic proportions by affecting more than 170 million people worldwide. A combination of environmental and genetic factors have led to a dramatic rise in visceral adiposity, the predominant factor causing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Visceral adiposity is also the major risk factor for the development of Sleep Apnea (SA)--an association that has fueled interest in the co-morbidity of SA and the metabolic syndrome, but hampered attempts to ascribe an independent causative role for Sleep Apnea in the development of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Numerous population and clinic-based epidemiologic studies have shown associations, often independent of obesity, between SA (or surrogates such as snoring) and measures of glucose dysregulation or type 2 diabetes. However, treatment of SA with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) has not been conclusive in demonstrating improvements in insulin resistance, perhaps due to the overwhelming effects of obesity. Here we show that in lean, otherwise healthy mice that exposure to intermittent hypoxia produced whole-body insulin resistance as determined by the hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp and reduced glucose utilization in oxidative muscle fibers, but did not cause a change in hepatic glucose output. Furthermore, the increase in insulin resistance was not affected by blockade of the autonomic nervous system. We conclude that intermittent hypoxia can cause acute insulin resistance in otherwise lean healthy animals, and the response occurs independent of activation of the autonomic nervous system.