Investigation into the Role of the Skeletal Muscle BBSome in Insulin Sensitivity.

The BBSome is a protein complex composed of eight Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) proteins including BBS1. Humans and mice lacking a functional BBSome display impaired insulin sensitivity, hyperglycemia, and type 2 diabetes, highlighting the importance of this protein complex in the control of insulin action and glucose homeostasis. However, the contribution of the BBSome in insulin sensitive tissues such as the skeletal muscle to the control of insulin sensitivity is not clear. We hypothesized that BBSome deficiency in the skeletal muscle will lead to insulin resistance and diabetes. To test this, we generated a novel conditional knockout mouse model lacking the Bbs1 gene specifically in the skeletal muscle. This was achieved by crossing mice expressing floxed alleles of the Bbs1 gene (Bbs1fl/fl ) with mice expressing Cre-recombinase in the skeletal muscle (MCKCre ). These mice were further bred with tdTomato reporter mice to validate Cre-recombinase using red tdTomato protein fluorescence. Body weight, glucose handling (measured using glucose tolerance test, GTT) and insulin sensitivity (measured using insulin tolerance test, ITT) of Bbs1fl/fl /MCKCre mice were compared to littermate controls. Furthermore, we used Western blot to test the ability of insulin to activate Akt, a key signaling pathway associated with the insulin receptor. We found that both male and female Bbs1fl/fl /MCKCre mice have no significant alteration in body weight relative to wild type controls (31.4±1.5 vs 31.1±1.0 g in males and 24.1±2.2 vs 23.0±1.7 g in females at 16 weeks of age). There was also no significant change in glucose handling (GTT AUC: 30608±2106 vs 30741±3480 in males and 28836±4466 vs 26530±3334 AUC in females) and insulin sensitivity (ITT AUC: 11017±1285 vs 9935±1080 in males and 8223±792 vs 5803±978 AUC in females) between Bbs1fl/fl /MCKCre mice and controls. This was further confirmed by the lack of difference in insulin-induced Akt activation in skeletal muscle, liver, and adipose tissue. These findings suggest that BBS1 protein in skeletal muscle is not required for insulin sensitivity. Next, we assessed whether challenging the mice with high fat/high sucrose diet (HFHSD), starting at weaning, could reveal a role for the skeletal muscle BBSome in insulin sensitivity. The weight gain evoked by HFHSD was comparable between Bbs1fl/fl /MCKCre mice and controls (32.3±3.1 vs 33.3±1.0 g in males at 10 weeks of age). Once they reach 16 weeks of age, the HFHSD mice will be subject to glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity tests to determine if obesity exaggerates hyperglycemia and insulin resistance in Bbs1fl/fl /MCKCre mice. © FASEB.

Citation

Younes Rouabhi, Deng-Fu Guo, Kamal Rahmouni. Investigation into the Role of the Skeletal Muscle BBSome in Insulin Sensitivity. FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. 2022 May;36 Suppl 1

PMID: 35551881

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