Cellular glutamine treatment has been shown to improve skeletal muscle metabolism and insulin signaling; although, prior studies have used cell culture models with only supraphysiological glutamine concentrations. Our work utilized cell culture experiments with the objective of comparatively measuring the outcome of both physiological and supraphysiological glutamine treatment on myotube glycolytic metabolism and insulin sensitivity in both insulin resistant and sensitive cells. In this study, differentiated C2C12 myotubes were treated with different concentrations of glutamine, a 0.5 mM culture to act as a physiological control and 2-4 mM cultures to represent the supraphysiological experimental group. In addition to measuring metabolic gene expression via qRT-PCR, oxygen consumption experiments were performed to determine mitochondrial and glycolytic metabolism. Insulin signaling was determined using pAkt:Akt levels following glucose/insulin treatment. To quantify glutamine utilization and uptake, glutamine levels were determined in residual cell culture media and in cell lysate using LC-MS/MS analysis. Glutamine metabolism was also probed from metabolomic quantification of intracellular α-ketoglutarate.

Targeted metabolomic study of myotube metabolism enhancement during glutamine treatment without altering insulin sensitivity

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.