Suppression of myocardial protein degradation in the rat during fasting. Effects of insulin, glucose, and leucine.

To study the effects of leucine, glucose, and insulin on myocardial protein degradation in fed and fasted nutritional states, we developed and validated a sensitive method for measuring rates of total protein degradation in rat isolated left atrial preparations. Fasting resulted in a progressive decrease in myocardial protein breakdown to 71% of control over a 24-hour period, with no further reduction in degradation rate between 24 and 72 hours of fasting. Insulin (100 mU/ml) suppressed atrial protein degradation by 38% in fed animals (P less than 0.001) and by 51% in fasted animals (P less than 0.001). Glucose alone had no effect on protein degradation in either nutritional state. At 5 times normal plasma levels, leucine suppressed protein breakdown by 21% in fed and by 15% in fasted animals. The decrease in degradation induced by fasting and the absence of an effect of glucose are in contrast to the behavior reported for skeletal muscle.