PhD defence: Novel insights into GLUT4 trafficking and subcellular distribution in adult muscle

Jonas Borup Roland

PhD thesis

Type 2 diabetes is one of the major non-communicable diseases. An early step in the progression to type 2 diabetes is that the skeletal muscle tissue exhibits an impaired ability for the hormone insulin to increase glucose uptake in the skeletal muscle tissue, a condition termed insulin resistance.

At the molecular level, insulin-resistance is caused by a decrease ability for insulin to stimulate movement of glucose transporter proteins (GLUT4), from inside the muscle cells to the surface membranes. Intriguingly, a single bout of exercise acutely reverses muscle insulin resistance.

Rodent studies suggest that prior exercise augments insulin-induced insertion of GLUT4 in the surface membrane but it is not known whether this is true for humans. Furthermore, our knowledge of how GLUT4 moves inside adult muscle is limited.

In the current PhD study, we aimed to improve our knowledge of the underlying mechanisms regulating GLUT4 trafficking in adult rodent and human muscles both in prior exercised and insulin resistant muscle.

2019, 74 pages.

Time

24 May 2019, 10:30

Place

Aud 1, August Krogh Building, Universitetsparken 13, 2100 Copenhagen.

Opponents

Professor Lars Nybo (chair), Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Professor Timothy McGraw, Cornell University, New York, USA.

Professor Jørgen Jensen, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Norway.

Supervisor

Associate professor Thomas Elbenhardt Jensen, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.