Regulation of cell surface GLUT4 in skeletal muscle of transgenic mice

Marked overexpression of the glucose transporter GLUT4 in skeletal muscle membrane fractions of GLUT4 transgenic (TG) mice is accompanied by disproportionately small increases in basal and insulin-stimulated glucose transport activity. Thus we have assessed cell surface GLUT4 by photolabelling with the membrane-impermeant reagent 2-N-[4-(1-azi-2,2,2-trifluoroethyl)benzoyl]-1,3-bis(D-mannos-4-yloxy) (ATB-BMPA) and measured the corresponding glucose transport activity using 2-deoxyglucose in isolated extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles from non-transgenic (NTG) and GLUT4 TG mice in the absence and presence of 13.3 nM (2000 mu units/ml) insulin, without or with hypoxia as a model of muscle contraction. TG mice displayed elevated rates of glucose trans port activity under basal and insulin-stimulated conditions, and in the presence of insulin plus hypoxia, compared with NTG mice. Photoaffinity labelling of cell surface GLUT4 indicated corresponding elevations in plasma membrane GLUT4 in the basal and insulin-stimulated states, and with insulin plus hypoxia, but no difference in cell surface GLUT4 during hypoxia stimulation. Subcellular fractionation of hindlimb muscles confirmed the previously observed 3-fold overexpression of GLUT4 in the TG compared with the NTG mice. These results suggest that: (1) alterations in glucose transport activity which occur with GLUT4 overexpression in EDL muscles are directly related to cell surface GLUT4 content, regardless of the levels observed in the corresponding subcellular membrane fractions, (2) while overexpression of GLUT4 influences both basal and insulin-stimulated glucose transport activity, the response to hypoxia/contraction-stimulated glucose transport is unchanged, and (3) subcellular fractionation provides little insight into the subcellular trafficking of GLUT4, and whatever relationship is demonstrated in EDL muscles from NTG mice is disrupted on GLUT4 overexpression.