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...

Introduction: Skeletal muscle cells enable investigation of myogenesis and metabolic function in vitro. Exposure to human serum can provide insight into the impact of endocrine factors upon differentiation and mitochondrial function of skeletal muscle. The aim of these experiments was to optimise the culture conditions using human serum, which it was hypothesised would enhance myogenesis and mitochondrial function of LHCN-M2 human skeletal muscle cells.<p class="a...

Introduction: Efficient fuel selection between glucose and fatty acids in insulin-sensitive organs is a key feature which determines metabolic health in humans. In skeletal muscle, lipid storage and utilisation can differ between healthy and diseased individuals, however to date there are limited in vitro models to explore this. Therefore, aim of this work was to investigate the effects of nutrition on engineered skeletal muscle health and metabolism.<p class="abs...