Computer Simulation Model to Train Medical Personnel on Glucose Clamp Procedures.

Objective: A glucose clamp procedure is the most reliable way to quantify insulin pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, but skilled and trained research personnel are required to frequently adjust the glucose infusion rate. A computer environment that simulates glucose clamp experiments can be used for efficient personnel training and development and testing of algorithms for automated glucose clamps.

Methods: We built 17 virtual healthy subjects (mean age, 25±6 years; mean body mass index, 22.

Low density lipoprotein delays clearance of triglyceride-rich lipoprotein by human subcutaneous adipose tissue.

Delayed clearance of triglyceride-rich lipoprotein (TRL) by white adipose tissue (WAT) promotes hypertriglyceridemia and elevated apoB-lipoproteins, which are primarily in the form of LDL. This study examines whether LDL promotes delayed clearance of TRL by WAT. Following the ingestion of a (13)C-triolein-labeled high-fat meal, obese women with high plasma apoB (> median 0.

Chronic exposure to ketone bodies impairs glucose uptake in adult cardiomyocytes in response to insulin but not vanadate: the role of PI3-K.

There is a strong positive correlation between insulin resistance and cardiac diseases. We have already shown that chronic exposure to the ketone body beta-hydroxybutyrate (OHB) decreases insulin-mediated activation of protein kinase B (PKB) and glucose uptake in cardiomyocytes. To gain further insights into the mechanism underlying ketone body-induced insulin resistance, we examined whether OHB alters activation of the insulin-signaling cascade and whether the insulinomimetic agent vanadate could bypass insulin resistance and stimulate glucose uptake in these cells.

Stimulation of glucose uptake by chronic vanadate pretreatment in cardiomyocytes requires PI 3-kinase and p38 MAPK activation.

Vanadate, an inhibitor of tyrosine phosphatases, has insulin-mimetic properties. It has been shown that acute vanadate administration enhances glucose uptake independently of phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase and p38 MAPK. However, therapeutic vanadate use requires chronic administration, and this could potentially involve a different signaling pathway(s).