Comparative glucoregulatory responses of mice to restraint and footshock stress stimuli

Effects of two types of stress, restraint and footshock, on plasma glucose level, insulin secretion, and glucose uptake by the liver, heart and femoral muscle were investigated in mice. Plasma glucose level gradually increased and reached maximum at 60 min after the onset of restraint stress, while footshock stress slightly increased plasma glucose level only 15 min after the onset of the stress, and this subsequently decreased significantly. The basal plasma insulin level and glucose-induced insulin secretion significantly decreased during both the stress stimuli. Glucose uptake by the femoral muscle was slightly increased during restraint stress, and was significantly increased during footshock stress. These results suggest that the transient increase in plasma glucose level during the early period of both stress stimuli might be caused by the inhibition of insulin secretion, and subsequent decrease in plasma glucose level during the latter phase of both stress stimuli was probably due to the increase in glucose uptake by the skeletal muscle. The present study confirmed that there was a difference in stress-induced glucoregulatory changes between restraint stress and footshock stress. This difference might be due to the degree of muscle movement during the stress stimuli.