1. To examine metabolic correlates of insulin resistance in skeletal muscle, we used 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study glycogenolytic and oxidative ATP synthesis in leg muscle of lean and obese Zucker rats in vivo during 6 min sciatic nerve stimulation at 2 Hz.
2. The water content of resting muscle was reduced by 21 ± 7% in obese (insulin-resistant) animals compared with lean animals, whereas the lipid content was increased by 140 ± 70%. These results suggest that intracellular water content was reduced by 17% in obese animals.
3. During exercise, although twitch tensions were not significantly different in the two groups, rates of total ATP synthesis (expressed per litre of intracellular water) were 48 ± 20% higher in obese animals, suggesting a 50 ± 8% reduction in intrinsic ‘metabolic efficiency’. Changes in phosphocreatine and ADP concentration were significantly greater in obese animals than in lean animals, whereas changes in intracellular pH did not differ.
4. These results imply that oxidative ATP synthesis during exercise is activated earlier in obese animals than in lean animals. This difference was not fully accounted for by the greater increase in the concentration of the mitochondrial activating signal ADP. Neither the post-exercise recovery kinetics of phosphocreatine nor the muscle content of the mitochondrial marker enzyme citrate synthase was significantly different in the two groups. The increased oxidative ATP synthesis in exercise must therefore be due to altered kinetics of mitochondrial activation by signals other than ADP.
5. Thus, the insulin-resistant muscle of obese animals may compensate for its decreased efficiency (and consequent increased need for ATP) by increased reliance on oxidative ATP synthesis.
