Lithium increases susceptibility of muscle glucose transport to stimulation by various agents

Lithium is thought to have an insulin-like effect on glucose transport and metabolism in skeletal muscle and adipocytes. However, we found that lithium had only a minimal effect on basal glucose transport activity in rat epitrochlearis muscles. Instead, lithium markedly increased the sensitivity of glucose transport to insulin, so that the increase in glucose transport activity induced by 300 pM insulin was approximately 2.5-fold greater in the presence of lithium than in its absence. Lithium also caused a modest increase in insulin responsiveness. This enhancement of the susceptibility of the glucose transport process to stimulation was not limited to insulin, because lithium induced increases in the susceptibility of glucose transport to stimulation by contractile activity, hypoxia, a phorbol ester, and phospholipase C. Lithium also blunted the activation of glycogen phosphorylase by epinephrine. These effects were not mediated by inhibition of adenylate cyclase, because neither basal- nor epinephrine-stimulated muscle cAMP concentration was affected by lithium treatment. The effects of lithium on glucose transport and metabolism in skeletal muscle are strikingly similar to the persistent effects of exercise. These results support the possibility that lithium might be useful in the treatment of insulin resistance in patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.