Impaired insulin-stimulated glucose transport in ATM-deficient mouse skeletal muscle

There are reports that ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) plays a role in insulin-stimulated Akt phosphorylation, although this is not the case in some cell types. Because Akt plays a key role in insulin signaling, which leads to glucose transport in skeletal muscle, the predominant tissue in insulin-stimulated glucose disposal, we examined whether insulin-stimulated Akt phosphorylation and (or) glucose transport would be decreased in skeletal muscle of mice lacking functional ATM, compared with muscle from wild-type mice. We found that in vitro insulin-stimulated Akt phosphorylation was normal in soleus muscle from mice with 1 nonfunctional allele of ATM (ATM+/-) and from mice with 2 nonfunctional alleles (ATM-/-). However, insulin did not stimulate glucose transport or the phosphorylation of AS160 in ATM-/- soleus. ATM protein level was markedly higher in wild-type extensor digitorum longus (EDL) than in wild-type soleus. In EDL from ATM-/- mice, insulin did not stimulate glucose transport. However, in contrast to findings for soleus, insulin-stimulated Akt phosphorylation was blunted in ATM-/- EDL, concomitant with a tendency for insulin-stimulated phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activity to be decreased. Together, the findings suggest that ATM plays a role in insulin-stimulated glucose transport at the level of AS160 in muscle comprised of slow and fast oxidative-glycolytic fibers (soleus) and at the level of Akt in muscle containing fast glycolytic fibers (EDL).