In vivo glucose uptake can occur via two mechanisms, namely, insulin-mediated glucose uptake (IMGU) and non-insulin-mediated glucose uptake (NIMGU). Although the principal tissue sites for IMGU are skeletal muscle, the tissue sites for NIMGU at a given serum glucose concentration are not known. To examine this issue, rates of whole body glucose uptake (Rd) were measured at basal and during gluc...

BACKGROUND Low skeletal muscle mass is associated with poor postoperative outcomes in cancer patients. Furthermore, it is associated with increased healthcare costs in the United States. We investigated its effect on hospital expenditure in a Western-European healthcare system, with universal access. METHODS Skeletal muscle mass (assessed on CT) and costs were obtained for patients who underw...

Skeletal muscle is a plastic organ made by highly specialize fibers with specific and different structure, function and metabolism. Skeletal muscle fibers can adapt, change, recover/regenerate after injury in response to various stimulators including hormones. Thyroid hormones are important players in the homeostasis of several tissue including skeletal muscle and their genomic action mostly de...

Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), a protein integral to innate immunity, is elevated in skeletal muscle of obese and type 2 diabetic humans and has been implicated in the development of lipid-induced insulin resistance. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of TLR4 as a modulator of basal (non-insulin-stimulated) substrate metabolism in skeletal muscle with the hypothesis that its activa...

Sildenafil relaxes vascular smooth muscle cells and is used to treat pulmonary artery hypertension as well as erectile dysfunction. However, the effectiveness of sildenafil on skeletal muscle and the benefit of its clinical use have been controversial, and most studies focus primarily on tissues and organs from disease models without cellular examination. Here, the effects of sildenafil on skel...

The neuronal isoform of nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) is highly expressed in mammalian skeletal muscle, but its functional role has not been defined. NO has been implicated in the local metabolic regulation of blood flow in contracting skeletal muscle in part by antagonizing sympathetic vasoconstriction. We therefore hypothesized that nNOS in skeletal muscle is the source of the NO mediating the...

The proteoglycans synthesized by cartilage both in vivo and in vitro have been well characterized and serve as a standard for comparison with proteoglycans from other tissues. Both cartilage and muscle are mesenchymally derived tissues; yet proteoglycans synthesized by skeletal muscle have not been studied. This report describes the isolation and preliminary characterization of skeletal muscle ...

THAT changes in ionic gradients affect contractility and excitability has been shown in skeletal muscle,' cardiac muscle' ° and nerve." The reduction of external sodium causes reduction and eventual loss of excitability in nerve and skeletal muscle, supposedly because depolarization is due to the entry of sodium into the cell. The precise effect of alterations in external sodium on contractilit...

Smooth muscle contraction differs somewhat from skeletal muscle. Ca is involved in the initiation of contraction as it is in skeletal muscle. However, the myosin in smooth muscle must be phosphorylated for activation of the myosin ATPase. Phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of myosin also occurs in skeletal muscle, but phosphorylation is not necessary for activation of the ATPase. In smooth m...

Maximal whole body exercise leads skeletal muscle blood flow to markedly increase to match metabolic demands, a phenomenon termed exercise hyperaemia that is accomplished by increasing vasodilation. However, local vasodilatory mechanisms in response to skeletal muscle contraction remain uncertain. This review highlights metabolic vasodilators released from contracting skeletal muscle, endotheli...