Recruitment determines the profile of fibre-type-specific genes expressed across the range of muscle fibres associated with slow, fast fatigue-resistant and fast fatiguable motor units. Downstream signalling pathways activated by neural signalling and mechanical load have been the focus of intensive research in past years. It is now known that Ca2+-dependent calcineurin–nuclear factor of activated T cells and insulin-like growth factor 1 pathways and their downstream mediators contribute to these adaptive responses. These pathways regulate gene expression through muscle-specific (myocyte-enhancing factor 2, myoblast determination protein) and non-specific (nuclear factor of activated T cell 2, GATA-2) transcription factors. Transcriptional signals activated with increased contractile activity result in altered expression of fibre-type specific genes, including the myosin heavy chain isoforms and oxidative and glycolytic enzymes and a net change in muscle fibre-type composition. In contrast, transcriptional signals activated by increased load bearing result in hypertrophy or a growth response, a component of which involves satellite cell recruitment and fusion with existing adult myofibres. Calcineurin has been identified as a key mediator in the hypertrophic response, and the current challenge has been to determine the downstream target genes of this pathway. Exciting new data have emerged, showing that myostatin, a negative regulator of muscle growth, and utrophin, a cytoskeletal protein important in maintaining membrane integrity, are downstream targets of calcineurin signalling. Increased understanding of these mediators of muscle growth may provide strategies for the development of effective therapeutics to counter muscle weakness and muscular dystrophy.

Although insulin, amino acids and exercise individually activate multiple signal transduction pathways in skeletal muscle, one pathway, the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)–mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signalling pathway, is a target of all three. Activation of the PI3K–mTOR signal transduction pathway results in both acute (i.e. occurring in minutes to hours) and long-term (i.e. occurring in hours to days) up-regulation of protein synthesis through modulation of multiple steps involved in mediating the initiation of mRNA translation and ribosome biogenesis respectively. In addition, changes in gene expression through altered patterns of mRNA translation promote cell growth, which in turn promotes muscle hypertrophy. The focus of the present discussion is to review current knowledge concerning the mechanism(s) through which insulin, amino acids and resistance exercise act to activate the PI3K–mTOR signal transduction pathway and thereby enhance the rate of protein synthesis in muscle.

In skeletal muscle, as in any mammalian tissue, protein levels are dictated by relative rates of protein synthesis and breakdown. Recent studies have shown that the ubiquitin–proteasome-dependent proteolytic pathway is mainly responsible for the breakdown of myofibrillar proteins. In this pathway proteins that are to be degraded are first tagged with a polyubiquitin degradation signal. Ubiquitination is performed by the ubiquitin-activating enzyme, ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes and ubiquitin–protein ligases, which are responsible for the recognition of specific substrates. Polyubiquitinated protein substrates are then specifically recognised and degraded by the 26S proteasome. The present review focuses on: (1) the mechanisms of ubiquitination–deubiquitination that make the system highly selective; (2) the mechanisms of proteolysis in skeletal muscle. In particular, the role of the system in the remodelling of skeletal muscle during exercise and disuse and in recovery or regeneration that prevails during post-atrophic conditions is reviewed.

Human physiology needs to be well adapted to cope with major discontinuities in both the supply of and demand for energy. This adaptability requires ‘a clear capacity to utilize lipid and carbohydrate fuels and to transition between them’ ( Kelley et al. 2002b). Such capacities characterize the healthy state and can be termed ‘metabolic flexibility’. However, increasing evidence points to metabolic inflexibility as a key dysfunction of the cluster of disease states encompassed by the term ‘metabolic syndrome’. In obese and diabetic individuals this inflexibility is manifest in a range of metabolic pathways and tissues including: (1) failure of cephalic-phase insulin secretion (impaired early-phase prandial insulin secretion concomitant with failure to suppress hepatic glucose production and NEFA efflux from adipose tissue); (2) failure of skeletal muscle to appropriately move between use of lipid in the fasting state and use of carbohydrate in the insulin-stimulated prandial state; (3) impaired transition from fatty acid efflux to storage in response to a meal. Finally, it is increasingly clear that reduced capacity for fuel usage in, for example, skeletal muscle, as indicated by reduced mitochondrial size and density, is characteristic of the metabolic syndrome state and a fundamental component of metabolic inflexibility. Key questions that remain are how metabolic flexibility is lost in obese and diabetic individuals and by what means it may be regained.

Plasma NEFA are an important energy substrate and, furthermore, play a key role in the induction of insulin resistance in the body. The availability of NEFA is determined predominantly by their mobilization from adipose tissue triacylglycerol stores by the process of lipolysis. Adipose tissue lipolysis in man is regulated by a number of hormonal and paracrine and/or autocrine signals. The main hormonal signals may be represented by catecholamines, insulin, growth hormone, natriuretic peptides and some adipocytokines. The absolute levels and relative importance and contribution of these signals vary in different physiological situations, with diet and physical exercise being the main physiological variables that affect the hormonal signalling. Thus, modulations in hormonal signals induce an increase in NEFA mobilization in the post-absorptive state and during an acute bout of exercise, and suppress NEFA mobilization in the postprandial state. In addition, hormonal regulation is modified by long-term interventions in energy balance, such as dietary restriction and/or physical training, and is disturbed in some pathological states, such as obesity or diabetes. The question that remains is whether disturbances in lipolysis regulation in obese and diabetic subjects may be ‘corrected’ by the long-term interventions in diet and physical activity.

Skeletal muscle insulin resistance is a co-morbidity of obesity and a risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Insulin resistance is associated with the accumulation of intramyocellular lipids. Intramyocellular triacylglycerols do not appear to be the cause of insulin resistance but are more likely to be a marker of other lipid intermediates such as fatty acyl-CoA, ceramides or diacylglycerols. Fatty acyl-CoA, ceramides and diacylglycerols are known to directly alter various aspects of the insulin signalling cascade. Insulin signalling is inhibited by the phosphorylation of serine and threonine residues at the levels of the insulin receptor and insulin receptor substrate 1. Protein kinase C is responsible for the phosphorylation of the serine and threonine residues. Fatty acyl-CoA and diacylglycerols are known to activate protein kinase C. The cause of the intramyocellular accumulation of fatty acyl-CoA and diacylglycerols is unclear at this time. Reduced fatty acid oxidation does not appear to be responsible, as fatty acyl-CoA accumulates in skeletal muscle with a normal fatty acid oxidative capacity. Other potential mechanisms include oversupply of lipids to muscle and/or up regulated fatty acid transport.

From the perspective of a muscle physiologist, adipose tissue has long been perceived predominantly as a fuel reservoir that provides muscle and other tissues with NEFA when exogenous nutrients are insufficient for their energy needs. Recently, studies have established that adipose tissue is also an endocrine organ. Among the hormones it releases are adiponectin and leptin, both of which can activate AMP-activated protein kinase and increase fatty acid oxidation in skeletal muscle and probably other tissues. Deficiencies of leptin or leptin receptor, adiponectin and IL-6 are associated with obesity, insulin resistance and a propensity to type 2 diabetes. In addition, a lack of adiponectin has been linked to atherosclerosis. Whether this pathology reflects a deficient activation of AMP-activated protein kinase in peripheral tissues remains to be determined. Finally, recent studies have suggested that skeletal muscle may also function as an endocrine organ when it releases the cytokine IL-6 into the circulation during sustained exercise. Interestingly, one of the apparent effects of IL-6 is to stimulate lipolysis, causing the release of NEFA from the adipocyte. Thus, hormonal communications exist between the adipocyte and muscle that could enable them to talk to each other. The physiological relevance of this cross talk clearly warrants further study.

A Scientific Meeting was held at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, UK on 19 April 2004, when the following papers were presented. All abstracts are prepared as camera-ready material and are available as pdf.

A joint Scientific Meeting was held with the Association for the Study of Obesity at Trinity College, Dublin, Republic of Ireland, on 5–8 July 2004, when the following papers were presented. All abstracts are prepared as camera-ready material and are available as pdf.