Protein ingestion induces muscle insulin resistance independent of leucine-mediated mTOR activation

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Gordon I Smith
  • Jun Yoshino
  • Kelly L Stromsdorfer
  • Seth J Klein
  • Magkos, Faidon
  • Dominic N Reeds
  • Samuel Klein
  • Bettina Mittendorfer

Increased plasma branched-chain amino acid concentrations are associated with insulin resistance, and intravenous amino acid infusion blunts insulin-mediated glucose disposal. We tested the hypothesis that protein ingestion impairs insulin-mediated glucose disposal by leucine-mediated mTOR signaling, which can inhibit AKT. We measured glucose disposal and muscle p-mTORSer2448, p-AKTSer473, and p-AKTThr308 in 22 women during a hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp procedure with and without concomitant ingestion of whey protein (0.6 g/kg fat-free mass; n = 11) or leucine that matched the amount given with whey protein (n = 11). Both whey protein and leucine ingestion raised plasma leucine concentration by approximately twofold and muscle p-mTORSer2448 by ∼30% above the values observed in the control (no amino acid ingestion) studies; p-AKTSer473 and p-AKTThr308 were not affected by whey protein or leucine ingestion. Whey protein ingestion decreased insulin-mediated glucose disposal (median 38.8 [quartiles 30.8, 61.8] vs. 51.9 [41.0, 77.3] µmol glucose/µU insulin · mL-1 · min-1; P < 0.01), whereas ingestion of leucine did not (52.3 [43.3, 65.4] vs. 52.3 [43.9, 73.2]). These results indicate that 1) protein ingestion causes insulin resistance and could be an important regulator of postprandial glucose homeostasis and 2) the insulin-desensitizing effect of protein ingestion is not due to inhibition of AKT by leucine-mediated mTOR signaling.

Original languageEnglish
JournalDiabetes
Volume64
Issue number5
Pages (from-to)1555-1563
Number of pages9
ISSN0012-1797
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

© 2015 by the American Diabetes Association. Readers may use this article as long as the work is properly cited, the use is educational and not for profit, and the work is not altered.

    Research areas

  • Aged, Amino Acids/blood, Blood Glucose, Dietary Proteins/administration & dosage, Female, Glucose Clamp Technique, Humans, Insulin/blood, Insulin Resistance/physiology, Leucine/metabolism, Middle Aged, Milk Proteins/pharmacology, Muscle, Skeletal/physiology, Signal Transduction, TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases/genetics, Whey Proteins

ID: 289962831