Biomedical subjects

Julio E Ayala

Publications and source records attributed to Julio E Ayala.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2025

A consensus guide to preclinical indirect calorimetry experiments.

Understanding the complex factors influencing mammalian metabolism and body weight homeostasis is a long-standing challenge requiring knowledge of energy intake, absorption and expenditure. Using measurements of respiratory gas exchange, indirect calorimetry can provide non-invasive estimates of whole-body energy expenditure. However, inconsistent measurement units and flawed data normalization methods have slowed progress in this field. This guide aims to establish consensus standards to unify indirect calorimetry experiments and their analysis for more consistent, meaningful and reproducible results. By establishing community-driven standards, we hope to facilitate data comparison across research datasets. This advance will allow the creation of an in-depth, machine-readable data repository built on shared standards. This overdue initiative stands to markedly improve the accuracy and depth of efforts to interrogate mammalian metabolism. Data sharing according to established best practices will also accelerate the translation of basic findings into clinical applications for metabolic diseases afflicting global populations.

Calorimetry, Indirect↗

PubMed2007

Chronic treatment with sildenafil improves energy balance and insulin action in high fat-fed conscious mice.

Stimulation of nitric oxide-cGMP signaling results in vascular relaxation and increased muscle glucose uptake. We show that chronically inhibiting cGMP hydrolysis with the phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitor sildenafil improves energy balance and enhances in vivo insulin action in a mouse model of diet-induced insulin resistance. High-fat-fed mice treated with sildenafil plus L-arginine or sildenafil alone for 12 weeks had reduced weight and fat mass due to increased energy expenditure. However, uncoupling protein-1 levels were not increased in sildenafil-treated mice. Chronic treatment with sildenafil plus L-arginine or sildenafil alone increased arterial cGMP levels but did not adversely affect blood pressure or cardiac morphology. Sildenafil treatment, with or without l-arginine, resulted in lower fasting insulin and glucose levels and enhanced rates of glucose infusion, disappearance, and muscle glucose uptake during a hyperinsulinemic (4 mU x kg(-1) x min(-1))-euglycemic clamp in conscious mice. These effects occurred without an increase in activation of muscle insulin signaling. An acute treatment of high fat-fed mice with sildenafil plus l-arginine did not improve insulin action. These results show that phosphodiesterase-5 is a potential target for therapies aimed at preventing diet-induced energy imbalance and insulin resistance.

Animal Feed↗

PubMed2006

Considerations in the design of hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamps in the conscious mouse.

Despite increased use of the hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp to study insulin action in mice, the effects of experimental parameters on the results obtained have not been addressed. In our studies, we determined the influences of sampling sites, fasting duration, and insulin delivery on results obtained from clamps in conscious mice. Carotid artery and jugular vein catheters were implanted in C57BL/6J mice (n = 6-10/group) fed a normal diet for sampling and infusions. After a 5-day recovery period, mice underwent a 120-min clamp (2.5-mU . kg(-1) . min(-1) insulin infusion; approximately 120-130 mg/dl glucose) while receiving [3-(3)H]glucose to determine glucose appearance (endoR(a)) and disappearance (R(d)). Sampling large volumes (approximately 100 mul) from the cut tail resulted in elevated catecholamines and basal glucose compared with artery sampling. Catecholamines were not elevated when taking small samples ( approximately 5 mul) from the cut tail. Overnight (18-h) fasting resulted in greater loss of total body, lean, and fat masses and hepatic glycogen but resulted in enhanced insulin sensitivity compared with 5-h fasting. Compared with a 16-mU/kg insulin prime, a 300-mU/kg prime resulted in hepatic insulin resistance and slower acquisition of steady-state glucose infusion rates (GIR) after a 5-h fast. The steady-state GIR was expedited after the 300-mU/kg prime in 18-h-fasted mice. The GIR and R(d) rose with increasing insulin infusions (0.8, 2.5, 4, and 20 mU . kg(-1) . min(-1)), but endoR(a) was fully suppressed with doses higher than 0.8 mU . kg(-1) . min(-1). Thus, common variations in experimental factors yield different results and should be considered in designing and interpreting clamps.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

Interaction of physiological mechanisms in control of muscle glucose uptake.

1. Control of glucose uptake is distributed between three steps. These are the rate that glucose is delivered to cells, the rate of transport into cells, and the rate that glucose is phosphorylated within these same cells. The functional limitations to each one of these individual steps has been difficult to assess because they are so closely coupled to each other. Studies have been performed in recent years using complex isotopic techniques or transgenic mouse models to shed new light on the role that each step plays in overall control of muscle glucose uptake. 2. Membrane glucose transport is a major barrier and glucose delivery and glucose phosphorylation are minor barriers to muscle glucose uptake in the fasted, sedentary state. GLUT-4 is translocated to the muscle membrane during exercise and insulin-stimulation. The result of this is that it can become so permeable to glucose that it is only a minor barrier to glucose uptake. 3. In addition to increasing glucose transport, exercise and insulin-stimulation also increase muscle blood flow and capillary recruitment. This effectively increases muscle glucose delivery and by doing so, works to enhance muscle glucose uptake. 4. There is a growing body of data that suggests that insulin resistance to muscle glucose uptake can be because of impairments in any one or more of the three steps that comprise the process.

Animals↗

PubMed2002

Accessory elements, flanking DNA sequence, and promoter context play key roles in determining the efficacy of insulin and phorbol ester signaling through the malic enzyme and collagenase-1 AP-1 motifs.

Insulin stimulates malic enzyme (ME)-chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) and collagenase-1-CAT fusion gene expression in H4IIE cells through identical activator protein-1 (AP-1) motifs. In contrast, insulin and phorbol esters only stimulate collagenase-1-CAT and not ME-CAT fusion gene expression in HeLa cells. The experiments in this article were designed to explore the molecular basis for this differential cell type- and gene-specific regulation. The results highlight the influence of three variables, namely promoter context, AP-1 flanking sequence, and accessory elements that modulate insulin and phorbol ester signaling through the AP-1 motif. Thus, fusion gene transfection and proteolytic clipping gel retardation assays suggest that the AP-1 flanking sequence affects the conformation of AP-1 binding to the collagenase-1 and ME AP-1 motifs such that it selectively binds the latter in a fully activated state. However, this influence of ME AP-1 flanking sequence is dependent on promoter context. Thus, the ME AP-1 motif will mediate both an insulin and phorbol ester response in HeLa cells when introduced into either the collagenase-1 promoter or a specific heterologous promoter. But even in the context of the collagenase-1 promoter, the effects of both insulin and phorbol esters, mediated through the ME AP-1 motif are dependent on accessory factors.

Base Sequence↗