Abstract
Purpose
Muscle is an essential organ for glucose metabolism and can be influenced by metabolic disorders and physical activity. Elevated muscle carnosine levels have been associated with insulin resistance and cardiometabolic risk factors. Little is known about muscle carnosine in type 1 diabetes (T1D) and how it is influenced by physical activity. The aim of this study was to characterize muscle carnosine in vivo by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS) and evaluate the relationship with physical activity, clinical characteristics and lipoprotein subfractions.
Methods
16 men with T1D (10 athletes/6 sedentary) and 14 controls without diabetes (9/5) were included. Body composition by DXA, cardiorespiratory capacity (VO2peak) and serum lipoprotein profile by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) were obtained. Muscle carnosine scaled to water (carnosineW) and to creatine (carnosineCR), creatine and intramyocellular lipids (IMCL) were quantified in vivo using 1H MRS in a 3T MR scanner in soleus muscle.
Results
Subjects with T1D presented higher carnosine CR levels compared to controls. T1D patients with a lower VO2peak presented higher carnosineCR levels compared to sedentary controls, but both T1D and control groups presented similar levels of carnosineCR at high VO2peak levels. CarnosineW followed the same trend. Integrated correlation networks in T1D demonstrated that carnosineW and carnosineCR were associated with cardiometabolic risk factors including total and abdominal fat, pro-atherogenic lipoproteins (very low-density lipoprotein subfractions), low VO2peak, and IMCL.
Conclusions
Elevated muscle carnosine levels in persons with T1D and their effect on atherogenic lipoproteins can be modulated by physical activity.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- 1H MRS:
-
Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (in vivo)
- 1H NMR:
-
Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (in vitro)
- ANCOVA:
-
Analysis of covariance
- Apo-A1:
-
Apolipoprotein A1
- BMI:
-
Body mass index
- CarnosineCR :
-
Carnosine scaled to creatine
- CarnosineW :
-
Carnosine scaled to water
- DXA:
-
Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry
- GLUT-4:
-
Glucose transporter type 4
- HDL:
-
High-density lipoprotein
- IMCL:
-
Intramyocellular lipids
- IPAQ:
-
International physical activity questionnaire
- IR:
-
Insulin resistance
- METs:
-
Metabolic equivalents
- MR:
-
Magnetic resonance
- T1D:
-
Type 1 diabetes
- T2D:
-
Type 2 diabetes
- VLDL:
-
Very low-density lipoprotein
- VO2peak:
-
Maximal oxygen uptake
- WHR:
-
Waist-to-hip ratio
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Spanish Biomedical Research Center in Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Disorders (CIBERDEM) and the project 2014_SGR_520 of the Department of Universities, Research and Information Society of the Government of Catalonia. We are grateful to Judith Viaplana for the technical support and for Xavier Tomás and Jaime Isern for the manuscript revision. We are also grateful to the subjects who participated in the study.
Funding
This work was supported by the Spanish Biomedical Research Center in Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Disorders (CIBERDEM) and the project 2014_SGR_520 of the Department of Universities, Research and Information Society of the Government of Catalonia.
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LB, AIG and AN conceived and designed research. LB, AIG, SM and JP conducted the clinical experiments. MV, MAR, NA and XC conducted the 1H MRS and 1H NMR experiments and analysis. GF, SM and SK contributed with statistical and bioinformatic tools. GF, AIG, SK, and LB analysed data. LB, AIG, JR and AN wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.
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The Research and Ethics Committees of Hospital Clinic de Barcelona approved the experimental protocol (HCB/2009/5268), and the study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
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Brugnara, L., García, A.I., Murillo, S. et al. Muscular carnosine is a marker for cardiorespiratory fitness and cardiometabolic risk factors in men with type 1 diabetes. Eur J Appl Physiol 122, 1429–1440 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-022-04929-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-022-04929-z