Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: In vitro skeletal muscle cell models are vitally important for investigating the molecular mechanisms of skeletal muscle in metabolic and endocrine diseases, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Culture media for skeletal muscle cells can often contain glucose concentrations (GC) five times higher than what’s considered normal in fasting human plasma, thus is not representative of the in vivo environment. Hyperglycaemia in culture media may...

Introduction: Pharmacological targeting of skeletal muscle to enhance metabolism through signalling pathways independent of insulin could be effective in treating metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. BI-9774 is an allosteric agonist which has been shown to have high potency in enhancing 5’ AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activity. The purpose of these experiments was to establish the effects of BI-9774 on AMPK signalling and mitocho...

Introduction: Skeletal muscle (SkM) is a major site of carbohydrate and fatty acid (FA) utilisation, where efficient selection between these two substrates is paramount in maintaining metabolic homeostasis. The accumulation of FA in SkM has been suggested to contribute to metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Consequently, there is significant interest in SkM FA metabolism and importantly, how FAs contribute to the metabolic function...