PS14 - 74. Microvascular insulin sensitivity in human skeletal muscle and skin are related and both are associated with metabolic insulin sensitivity

Insulin recruits microvascular vessels to increase the available surface area for exchange of insulin with the interstitium. Insulin-induced microvascular recruitment is perturbed in insulin resistance, and may even be the culprit of insulin resistance. As such, insulin-induced microvascular recruitment has received increasing attention. The study of the human microcirculation has however been hampered by a perceived lack of appropriate techniques. Skin microcirculation has been used as a model for the muscle microcirculation, even though the skin is an insulin sensitive organ, doubt remained whether skin microcirculation is indeed a good model for the muscle microcirculation. In recent years, Contrast Enhanced UltraSound (CEUS) emerged as a novel tool to study muscle microcirculation. In this study, we set out to clarify the relation between insulin-induced capillary recruitment in skin and microvascular recruitment in muscle.