Tweaking energy consumption to combat muscle wasting and obesity

Using a new technique to evaluate working muscles in mice, researchers have uncovered physiological mechanisms that could lead to new strategies for combating metabolism-related disorders like muscle wasting and obesity. The study appears in The Journal of General Physiology.

ATP-sensitive potassium (K_ATP) channels, which link membrane excitability to cell metabolism, are abundant in skeletal muscle and play an important role in regulating muscle function and energy consumption. However, it is not clear how K_ATP activation affects muscles under physiological conditions and how this translates to energy use.

Researchers from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine developed a technique to evaluate muscle function in the tibialis anterior leg muscle of living mice. They found that, during low-level exercise, which triggered the opening of K_ATP channels, muscles with disrupted K_ATP function had higher peak force, calcium release, and heat production— which is associated with increased energy consumption— than muscles with normal K_ATP function.

The results show how K_ATP channels control energy use even during mundane, low-intensity activity. Modulating K_ATP channel activity could therefore provide a new strategy to combat metabolic disorders like muscle wasting and cachexia, when the goal is to conserve energy, or obesity, when increasing energy consumption is desired.