Posttraumatic skeletal muscle proteolysis: the role of the hormonal environment

To investigate the role of hormones as mediators of net skeletal muscle proteolysis following injury, healthy normal male volunteers received a continuous 76-hour infusion of the 3 "stress" hormones: hydrocortisone, glucagon, and epinephrine. As a control, each subject received a saline infusion during another 4-day period. Ten paired studies were conducted. Diets were constant and matched on both occasions. Triple hormone infusion achieved hormone concentrations similar to those seen following mild-moderate injury. After 72 hours of infusion, skeletal muscle intracellular glutamine concentrations were lower in the hormone studies than in the control group (N = 4). Free amino acid concentrations in arterial whole blood and forearm amino acid efflux were little affected by hormonal infusion. Thus, alteration of the hormonal environment by the triple hormone infusion was not a sufficient stimulus to induce all of the changes in skeletal muscle proteolysis observed in critical illness. Since studies utilizing neurohormonal blockade have shown diminished net muscle proteolysis, the stress hormones appear to be necessary but not sufficient for the protein catabolic response to injury.