| This thesis is an investigation of the acute effects of metformin (MET) on substrate metabolism in oxidative soleus (SOL) and glycolytic epitrochlearis (EPI) rodent muscle. SOL and EPI strips were incubated in the absence or presence of 2mM MET, with or without insulin (10mU/mL). 14C-glucose oxidation and 14C-palmitate metabolism (oxidation, esterification) were monitored during the first and last 30 min of a 3 hr incubation. In both muscles, basal and insulin-stimulated glucose oxidation was unaltered by MET. MET was without effect on basal fatty acid (FA) metabolism but restored specific parameters of FA metabolism altered in the presence of insulin in each muscle. In SOL, MET restored insulin-suppressed FA oxidation, with FA esterification unchanged. In EPI, FA oxidation in the presence of insulin was unaltered by MET but insulin-stimulated FA esterification into triacylglycerol was reduced. These data indicate MET counters acute insulin effects on muscle FA metabolism in skeletal muscle. |
