Effects of insulin in vitro on protein turnover in rat epitrochlearis muscle

Rates of protein synthesis and degradation were measured in the isolated rat epitrochlearis muscle by radiotracer techniques, by using the specific radioactivity of tRNA-bound amino acid as precursor for protein synthesis. The tissue maintained linear rates of protein synthesis for 3 h of incubation in the presence of amino acids and glucose and in the absence of insulin. Under these conditions, however, the muscles were in negative nitrogen balance, with rates of protein degradation exceeding rates of protein synthesis. Under steady-state conditions of labelling, the specific radioactivities of tRNA-bound leucine, phenylalanine and valine were significantly less than their respective values in the incubation medium, at concentrations in the medium varying from 1 to 10 times those in normal rat serum. Insulin caused a dose- and time-dependent increase in tRNA-based protein synthesis rates, more than doubling rates at 5 and 50 ng of insulin/ml. At the lower, physiological, concentration of insulin, the stimulation of protein synthesis was not observed until the third hour of incubation with the hormone, whereas the rate of protein synthesis at the higher concentration was elevated during the second hour. There were no delays in the stimulation by insulin of glucose conversion into glycogen. The delayed stimulatory effects of insulin on the rate of protein synthesis brought the tissue to a nitrogen balance near zero. The presence of the hormone also prevented the increase in the rate of protein degradation seen in the third hour of incubation in the absence of the hormone. These studies demonstrate the viability of the incubated rat epitrochlearis muscle with respect to protein metabolism and sensitivity to the protein anabolic effects of physiological concentrations of insulin, and indicate that the preparation is a suitable experimental model for the study of the control of protein metabolism in fast-twitch skeletal muscle.