Sex differences in hormone-sensitive lipase expression, activity, and phosphorylation in skeletal muscle at rest and during exercise

Carsten Roepstorff, Morten Donsmark, Maja Thiele, Bodil Vistisen, Greg Stewart, Kristian Vissing, Peter Schjerling, D. Grahame Hardie, Henrik Galbo, Bente Kiens

    73 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Women have been shown to use more intramuscular triacylglycerol (IMTG) during exercise than men. To investigate whether this could be due to sex-specific regulation of hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) and to use sex comparison as a model to gain further insight into HSL regulation, nine women and eight men performed bicycle exercise (90 min, 60% Vo(2peak)), and skeletal muscle HSL expression, phosphorylation, and activity were determined. Supporting previous findings, basal IMTG content (P < 0.001) and net IMTG decrease during exercise (P < 0.01) were higher in women than in men and correlated significantly (r = 0.72, P = 0.001). Muscle HSL mRNA (80%, P = 0.11) and protein content (50%, P < 0.05) were higher in women than in men. HSL total activity increased during exercise (47%, P < 0.05) but did not differ between sexes. Accordingly, HSL specific activity (HSL activity per HSL protein content) increased during exercise (62%, P < 0.05) and was generally higher in men than in women (82%, P < 0.05). A similar pattern was observed for HSL Ser(659) phosphorylation, suggesting a role in regulation of HSL activity. Likewise, plasma epinephrine increased during exercise (P < 0.05) and was higher in men than in women during the end of the exercise bout (P < 0.05). We conclude that, although HSL expression and Ser(659) phosphorylation in skeletal muscle during exercise is sex specific, total muscle HSL activity measured in vitro was similar between sexes. The higher basal IMTG content in women compared with men is therefore the best candidate to explain the higher IMTG net hydrolysis during exercise in women.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalAmerican Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism
    Volume291
    Issue number5
    Pages (from-to)E1106-E1114
    Number of pages9
    ISSN0193-1849
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2006

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