This study aimed to examine potential mechanisms for glucocorticoid (GC)-induced decreases in glucose clearance, and to determine if a reduction in oxidative stress load via dietary pre-treatment with an antioxidant-rich diet has a positive net effect on glucose tolerance following a sub-chronic treatment with the GC analogue dexamethasone (DEX). Rats fed a diet supplemented with 700IU of -tocopherol for two weeks had improved glucose clearance after five days of DEX-treatment relative to unsupplemented rats as well as decreased markers of oxidative stress. Following an intraperitoneal bolus of insulin, phosphorylation of AMP activated protein kinase (AMPK) was preserved in the supplemented groups despite no significant differences in upstream insulin signalling cascade intermediates between DEX-treated groups. This was corroborated by a similar increase (p<0.05) in phosphorylation of the downstream AMPK substrate acetyl CoA carboxylase. This study demonstrated that -tocopherol supplementation can attenuate GC-induced decreases in glucose clearance in an AMPK-dependent manner. / Nutrition and Metabolism
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:AEU.10048/1372 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Williams, Deon |
| Contributors | Wright, David (Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science), Field, Catherine (Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science), Boule, Normand (Physical Education and Recreation) |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 894246 bytes, application/pdf |
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