Blood flow and glucose uptake in denervated, insulin-resistant muscles

To investigate whether changes in blood flow contribute to the insulin resistance in denervated muscles, basal and insulin-stimulated 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) uptake in vivo and blood flow were measured in soleus (slow twitch), plantaris (fast twitch), and gastrocnemius (fast twitch) muscles at 1 and 3 days after a right hindlimb denervation in the rat. Muscles of the contralateral sham hindlimb served as an internal control. Sham plantaris and gastrocnemius muscles showed 32 and 60% lower basal 2-DG uptake, 46 and 66% lower insulin-stimulated 2-DG uptake, and 79 and 81% lower blood flow, respectively, compared with sham soleus muscle. At 1 day after denervation, soleus, plantaris, and gastrocnemius muscles exhibited an 80, 64, and 42% decrease in insulin-stimulated 2-DG uptake, respectively, in the presence of 63, 323, and 304% higher blood flow, respectively. At 3 days after denervation, soleus muscle showed a 60% decrease in basal 2-DG uptake, complete unresponsiveness to insulin, and an 86% decrease in blood flow. In contrast, the denervated plantaris and gastrocnemius muscles exhibited a 262 and 105% increase in basal 2-DG uptake, respectively, no change in insulin-stimulated 2-DG uptake, and no change in blood flow compared with corresponding contralateral sham muscles. The results demonstrate that muscle blood flow is influenced by muscle fiber population and time after denervation and that changes in blood flow do not contribute to the insulin resistance in the denervated muscles.