Resistin expression in adipose tissues of diet-induced obese mouse model and its influence on skeletal muscle glucose uptake

Objective:To investigate the expression of resistin (Retn) gene in the adipose tissues of obese mouse and its influence on the skeletal muscle glucose uptake, in an effort to understand the correlation between obese, resistin, and insulin resistance. Methods: The obese and insulin resistance model was induced with high-fat diet in C57BL/6J mice. Twenty-two weeks later the Lee’s index (BMI) and the concentrations of blood glucose and plasma insulin were determined. Glucose tolerance test was carried out to verify the appearance of insulin resistance and the impair to glucose tolerance, with normal mice taken as control. Retn mRNA expression in the adipose tissues of model mice (n=10) and control mice (n=5) was detected by Real-time RT-PCR. The resultant resistin protein was co-cultured with mouse skeletal muscle to assess its influence on glucose uptake. Results: An obese and insulin resistance mouse model was successfully induced with high fat diet. The Retn gene expression in adipose tissues was significantly higher in the obese mice than that in normal control mice(P0.01). The resultant resistin protein had a significant inhibitory effect on the glucose uptake by skeletal muscle with or without insulin(P0.05). Conclusion: It is suggested that the overexpression of Retn gene might be one of the reasons responsible for the decrease of glucose uptake by skeletal muscle and the subsequent insulin resistance in the diet-induced obese mice.