Skeletal muscle overexpression of nuclear respiratory factor 1 increases glucose transport capacity

Keith Baar, Zheng Song, Clay F. Semenkovich, Terry E. Jones, Dong-Ho Han, Lorraine A. Nolte, Edward O. Ojuka, May Chen, John O. Holloszy

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    94 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Nuclear respiratory factor 1 (NRF-1) is a transcriptional activator of nuclear genes that encode a range of mitochondrial proteins including cytochrome c, various other respiratory chain subunits, and d-aminolevulinate synthase. Activation of NRF-1 in fibroblasts has been shown to induce increases in cytochrome c expression and mitochondrial respiratory capacity. To further evaluate the role of NRF-1 in the regulation of mitochondrial biogenesis and respiratory capacity, we generated transgenic mice overexpressing NRF-1 in skeletal muscle. Cytochrome c expression was increased ~twofold and d-aminolevulinate synthase was increased ~50% in NRF-1 transgenic muscle. The levels of some mitochondrial proteins were increased 50–60%, while others were unchanged. Muscle respiratory capacity was not increased in the NRF-1 transgenic mice. A finding that provides new insight regarding the role of NRF-1 was that expression of MEF2A and GLUT4 was increased in NRF-1 transgenic muscle. The increase in GLUT4 was associated with a proportional increase in insulin-stimulated glucose transport. These results show that an isolated increase in NRF-1 is not sufficient to bring about a coordinated increase in expression of all of the proteins necessary for assembly of functional mitochondria. They also provide the new information that NRF-1 overexpression results in increased expression of GLUT4.—Baar, K., Song, Z., Semenkovich, C. F., Jones, T. E,. Han, D.-H., Nolte, L. A., Ojuka, E. O., Chen, M., Holloszy, J. O. Skeletal muscle overexpression of nuclear respiratory factor 1 increases glucose transport capacity.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1666-1673
    Number of pages8
    JournalFASEB Journal
    Volume17
    Issue number12
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Sept 2003

    Keywords

    • Respiratory enzymes
    • Mitochondria
    • Cytochrome c
    • Protein synthesis

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