Effects of long-term dietary nitrate supplementation in mice.

Background: Inorganic nitrate (NO3(-)) is a precursor of nitric oxide (NO) in the body and a large number of short-term studies with dietary nitrate supplementation in animals and humans show beneficial effects on cardiovascular health, exercise efficiency, host defense and ischemia reperfusion injury. In contrast, there is a long withstanding concern regarding the putative adverse effects of chronic nitrate exposure related to cancer and adverse hormonal effects. To address these concerns we performed in mice, a physiological and biochemical multi-analysis on the effects of long-term dietary nitrate supplementation.

Spatial and temporal regulation of GLUT4 translocation by flotillin-1 and caveolin-3 in skeletal muscle cells.

Skeletal muscle tissue is one of the main sites where glucose uptake occurs in response to insulin. The glucose transporter type-4 (GLUT4) is primarily responsible for the insulin-stimulated increase in glucose uptake. Upon insulin stimulation, GLUT4 is recruited from intracellular reserves to the plasma membrane.