Influence of dietary carbohydrate on skeletal muscle glucose uptake

The effect of altering the percent of dietary carbohydrate on the rate of skeletal muscle glucose uptake was studied using the perfused rat hindlimb preparation. The rats received either a high carbohydrate (HC; 65%), mixed (M; 35%) or low carbohydrate (LC; 10%) isocaloric diet for 7 days. With 0.1 mU/ml of insulin in the perfusate, the muscle of rats on the HC diet had a 33% increase in the rate of glucose uptake and the muscle of rats fed the LC diet a 23% decrease in the rate of glucose uptake when compared to the muscle of rats fed the M diet (3.34 mumol/g/30 min). With 10.0 mU/ml of insulin in the perfusate, ie maximal insulin stimulation, the rate of glucose uptake showed a similar dietary effect as that obtained with 0.1 mU/ml insulin. Compared to the M diet (8.67 mumol/g/30 min), the rate of glucose uptake increased 26% in muscle of rats from the HC group and decreased by 20% in muscle of rats from the LC group. Diet had no effect on the rate of muscle glucose uptake in the absence of insulin. Under both maximal and submaximal insulin stimulation, glycogen accumulation was greatest in muscle from HC fed rats and least in muscle from LC fed rats. During perfusion muscle intracellular free glucose and glucose-6-phosphate accumulation for the three dietary groups was negligible. The groups did not differ significantly in their muscle hexokinase or beta-hydroxyl acyl CoA dehydrogenase activities.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)