Attenuated responses of muscle protein synthesis to fasting and insulin in adult female rats.

One-year-old adult female rats were fasted for 12 or 36 h followed by a 30-min infusion of insulin. The responses of the fractional rate of protein synthesis (Ks) in the individual muscles (measured in vivo) to fasting were small and mostly nonsignificant. After 12 h of fasting, only the epitrochlearis muscle (ET) showed a significant decrease in Ks, and, even after 36 h of fasting, a significant decrease in Ks was seen in only ET, extensor digitorum longus, and tensor fasciae latae (TFL). After the 36-h fast, infusion of insulin restored the fed Ks in all muscles except TFL. The fiber-type composition of the individual muscles appeared to influence the muscles' responsiveness to the fasting, since the highly glycolytic TFL was the most sensitive (particularly after 36 h of fasting), whereas the highly oxidative adductor longus and soleus muscles were unaffected by either fasting or insulin. In a second experiment, refeeding of fasted adult rats also had little effect on Ks, consistent with the low sensitivity to fasting shown by the first experiment. The parallel results in the two experiments confirmed that the low responsiveness to fasting and insulin infusion in these adult rats was not a result of failure to absorb in "fed" animals or insufficient levels of insulin during insulin infusions. In contrast, a third experiment showed that muscle protein synthesis in the gastrocnemius muscle from young adult (5-mo-old) female rats was significantly reduced after only 12 h of fasting.