Partial skeletal muscle-specific Drp1 knockout enhances insulin sensitivity in diet-induced obese mice, but not in...

Dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) is the key regulator of mitochondrial fission. We and others have reported a strong correlation between enhanced Drp1 activity and impaired skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity. This study aimed to determine whether Drp1 directly regulates skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity and whole-body glucose homeostasis.

We employed tamoxifen-inducible skeletal muscle-specific heterozygous Drp1 knockout mice (mDrp1^+/-). Male mDrp1^+/- and wildtype (WT) mice were fed with either a high-fat diet (HFD) or low-fat diet (LFD) for four weeks, followed by tamoxifen injections for five consecutive days, and remained on their respective diet for another four weeks. In addition, we used primary human skeletal muscle cells (HSkMC) from lean, insulin-sensitive, and severely obese, insulin-resistant humans and transfected the cells with either a Drp1 shRNA (shDrp1) or scramble shRNA construct. Skeletal muscle and whole-body insulin sensitivity, skeletal muscle insulin signaling, mitochondrial network morphology, respiration, and H₂O₂ production were measured.

Partial deletion of the Drp1 gene in skeletal muscle led to improved whole-body glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity (P < 0.05) in diet-induced obese, insulin-resistant mice but not in lean mice. Analyses of mitochondrial structure and function revealed that the partial deletion of the Drp1 gene restored mitochondrial dynamics, improved mitochondrial morphology, and reduced mitochondrial Complex I- and II-derived H₂O₂ (P < 0.05) under the condition of diet-induced obesity. In addition, partial deletion of Drp1 in skeletal muscle resulted in elevated circulating FGF21 (P < 0.05) and in a trend towards increase of FGF21 expression in skeletal muscle tissue (P = 0.095). In primary myotubes derived from severely obese, insulin-resistant humans, ShRNA-induced-knockdown of Drp1 resulted in enhanced insulin signaling, insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and reduced cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) content compared to the shScramble-treated myotubes from the same donors (P < 0.05).

These data demonstrate that partial loss of skeletal muscle-specific Drp1 expression is sufficient to improve whole-body glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity under obese, insulin-resistant conditions, which may be, at least in part, due to reduced mitochondrial H₂O₂ production. In addition, our findings revealed divergent effects of Drp1 on whole-body metabolism under lean healthy or obese insulin-resistant conditions in mice.