Neural regulation of the enhanced uptake of glucose in skeletal muscle after endotoxin

Previous studies have demonstrated that in vivo injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) acutely stimulates glucose uptake (GU) in skeletal muscle. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether this enhanced GU is neurally mediated. In the first group of rats, a unilateral sciatic nerve transection was performed 3 h before injection of LPS, and in vivo GU was assessed using 2-[¹⁴C]deoxy-D-glucose 40 min after LPS injection. At this time, LPS-treated rats were hyperglycemic (12 mM), and insulin levels were not different from control rats. In the innervated leg, LPS increased GU 43-228%, depending on the muscle type. In contrast, LPS failed to increase GU in muscles from the denervated limb. In other experiments, somatostatin was infused to produce an insulinopenic condition before the injection of LPS. Despite insulinopenia, muscle GU was still increased by LPS. In control rats, in which the euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp technique was used, acute muscle denervation was shown to impair insulin-mediated GU in the presence of pharmacological, but not physiological, insulin levels. Non-insulin-mediated GU (NIMGU) was assessed in rats that were insulinopenic and hyperglycemic. In innervated muscle, NIMGU was increased 56-126 and 118-145% when the plasma glucose was elevated to 9 and 12 mM, respectively. In contrast, hyperglycemia-induced increases in NIMGU were attenuated in denervated muscle. These data demonstrate that 1) the early LPS-induced stimulation of muscle GU is mediated via a non-insulin- mediated pathway and 2) the LPS-induced increase in NIMGU in muscle is neurally mediated.