AJP - Endocrinology and Metabolism, Vol 267, Issue 6 E886-E891, Copyright © 1994 by American Physiological Society
Acute alcohol administration attenuates insulin-mediated glucose use by skeletal muscle
Z. Spolarics, G. J. Bagby, P. H. Pekala, C. Dobrescu, N. Skrepnik and J. J. Spitzer
Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Injury Sciences, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark 07103.
The aim of the present work was to test the effect of acute in vivo alcohol
administration (180-190 mg/dl plasma for 3 h) on glucose utilization by
tissues under basal conditions or after a hyperinsulinemic (100-130
microU/ml) euglycemic clamp in fasted rats. In vivo glucose use by
individual tissues was assessed by the tracer 2-deoxy-D-glucose technique.
Alcohol administration to saline-infused rats markedly inhibited glucose
use by skeletal muscles, including the soleus, white and red quadriceps,
and gastrocnemius, as well as by the heart. Ethanol infusion, however, had
no effect on glucose use by the diaphragm, lung, liver, skin, ileum, brain,
and adipose tissue. The insulin-stimulated glucose use was also inhibited
by alcohol selectively in the muscles, with no effect on other tissues
tested, except a moderate inhibition in the brain. Ethanol inhibited muscle
glucose use by an average of approximately 50% under both basal and
insulin-stimulated conditions. However, because insulin treatment more than
doubled basal glucose use by these muscles, the 50% inhibition by ethanol
treatment represents a greater inhibition of absolute glucose use under
insulin-stimulated rather than under basal conditions. Our data demonstrate
that acute alcohol intake attenuates basal and hormone-induced glucose
utilization in a tissue-specific fashion. The inhibitory effect of alcohol
on skeletal muscle glucose use could contribute to the previously observed
decreased glucose recycling in humans after acute alcohol intake.
