The effect of insulin and intermittent mechanical stretching on rates of protein synthesis and degradation in isolated rabbit muscle.

Tyrosine balance and protein synthesis were studied during the same incubation in isolated rabbit forelimb muscles. From these measurements, protein degradation was calculated. Isolated muscles were usually in a state of negative amino acid balance, principally as a result of the 75% decrease in protein synthesis. Muscles from rabbits starved for 18 h had lower rates of both protein synthesis and degradation compared with muscles from normally fed rabbits. Intermittent mechanical stretching and the addition of insulin at 100 microunits/ml increased rates of both protein synthesis and degradation. Increases in the rate of protein synthesis were proportionately greater in the muscles from starved animals. In muscles from both fed and starved donors, increases in protein-synthesis rates owing to intermittent stretching and insulin were proportionately greater than the increases in degradation rates. For example, insulin increased the rate of protein synthesis in the muscles from starved donors by 111% and the rate of degradation by 31%. Insulin also increased the rate of protein synthesis when added at a higher concentration (100 munits/ml); at this concentration, however, the rate of protein degradation was not increased. The suppressive effect of insulin on high rates of protein degradation in other skeletal-muscle preparations may reflect a non-physiological action of the hormone.