Chronic leptin treatment enhances insulin-stimulated glucose disposal in skeletal muscle of high-fat fed rodents

The aim of this investigation was to evaluate if chronic leptin administration corrects high fat diet-induced skeletal muscle insulin resistance, in part, by enhancing rates of glucose disposal and if the improvements are accounted for by alterations in components of the insulin-signaling cascade. Sprague-Dawley rats consumed normal (CON) or high fat diets for three months. After the dietary lead in, the high fat diet group was further subdivided into high fat (HF) and high fat, leptin treated (HF-LEP) animals. HF-LEP animals were injected twice daily with leptin (5 mg/100 g body weight) for 10 days, while the CON and HF animals were injected with vehicle. Following the treatment periods, all animals were prepared for and subjected to hind limb perfusion. The high fat diet decreased rates of insulin-stimulated skeletal muscle glucose uptake and glycogen synthesis in the red gastrocnemius (RG), but did not affect glycogen synthase activity, rates of glucose oxidation or nonoxidative disposal of glucose. Of interest, IRS-1-associated PI3-K activity and total GLUT4 protein concentration were reduced in the RG of the high fat-fed animals. Leptin treatment increased rates of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and glucose oxidation, and normalized rates of glycogen synthesis. Leptin appeared to mediate these effects by normalizing insulin-stimulated PI3-K activation and GLUT4 protein concentration in the RG. Collectively, these data suggest that chronic leptin treatment reverses the effects of a high fat diet thereby allowing the insulin signaling cascade and glucose transport effector system to be fully activated which in turn affects the amount of glucose that is transported across the plasma membrane and made available for glycogen synthesis. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.