Epinephrine Responsiveness is Reduced in Livers from Trained Mice

Abstract

Catecholamines increase liver glucose production at least in part through increases in glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis. To date, the effects of prior exercise training on the liver’s response to epinephrine, in vivo, have not been fully elucidated. To examine the role of epinephrine signaling on indices of liver glucose production in trained mice, male C57BL/6 mice were subject to either 12 days of voluntary wheel running (TR) or remained sedentary (SED). Epinephrine (0.5 mg/kg body weight), or vehicle were injected intraperitoneally following 12 days of training and tissues harvested 15 minutes post‐injection. The rise in blood glucose following epinephrine injection was significantly blunted in trained compared to sedentary mice and this was paralleled by a blunted reduction in liver glycogen in trained mice. There was a main effect of epinephrine to increase the phosphorylation of protein kinase‐A substrates (pPKAs), which was driven by increases in the sedentary, but not trained, mice. Similarly, epinephrine‐induced increases in the mRNA expression of α‐ and β‐adrenergic receptor 1 and 2 and glucose‐6‐phosphatase were greater in SED compared to TR mice. Exercise and epinephrine decreased serum insulin levels and increased glucagon levels, however, there were no differences within epinephrine treated groups. Changes in phosphorylated AKT, AMPK, and phosphodiesterase 4B protein content, negative regulators of PKA signaling, do not explain the protective effects of exercise training against epinephrine induced increases in blood glucose and liver glycogen breakdown. Taken together our data suggest that prior exercise training reduces the liver’s response to epinephrine. This could be beneficial in the context of training‐induced sparing of glycogen during exercise.Support or Funding InformationThis work was funded, in part, through a National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) grant to D.C.W., who is a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Lipids, Metabolism, and Health. H.A.D was supported by an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. G.L.M. was supported by an Ontario Graduate Scholarship and subsequently an NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship. L.K.T. was supported by a Dairy Farmers of Ontario Doctoral Research Assistantship and an NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship.