INVIVO GLUCOSE-UTILIZATION IN RAT-TISSUES DURING THE 3 PHASES OF STARVATION

Three phases of starvation have been described from changes in protein and lipid utilization in birds and mammals. In the present study, tissue glucose utilization was measured in vivo during these three phases, using a 2-deoxy-[1-3H]glucose technique in the anesthetized rat. According to this technique, the term glucose utilization therefore refers to transport and phosphorylation of glucose in tissues, ie, whatever is the fate of glucose. Whole-body glucose turnover rate, which was determined by a continuous infusion of [3-3H]glucose, decreased by 40% during the first two days of starvation (phase 1); it did not change thereafter, neither in the protein-sparing phase 2 nor in phase 3, which is marked by an increase in net protein breakdown. Two days of starvation caused a marked decrease in the glucose utilization in skeletal muscles; this decrease was higher in oxidative muscles (65% in diaphragm, 66% in soleus) than in glycolytic muscles (31% in extensor digitorum longus, 34% in epitrochlearis). Glucose utilization also decreased in heart atria (75%), heart ventricles (93%), and white adipose tissue (54%); by contrast, there was a two-fold increase in glucose utilization in brown adipose tissue and no change in brain and skin. No variations were observed in glucose utilization in any of the tissues from phase 1 to phase 2. However, phase 3 was marked by a decrease in glucose utilization in extensor digitorum longus (45%), brown adipose tissue (76%), brain (29%), and skin (40%), whereas there was a 2.3- and 3.4-fold increase in glucose utilization in diaphragm and heart ventricles, respectively. We conclude that prolonged starvation does not alter the whole-body glucose-sparing adaptation, even in the situation of low availability in lipid fuels (phase 3). Nevertheless, there is at this stage a rearrangement in glucose utilization among individual tissues in a way that favors the working muscles.