Glucosamine-induced endoplasmic reticulum stress affects GLUT4 expression via activating transcription factor 6 in rat and human skeletal muscle cells.

n both rat and human myotubes, glucosamine treatment caused a significant increase in the expression of the ER stress markers immunoglobulin heavy chain-binding protein/glucose-regulated protein 78 kDa (BIP/GRP78 [also known as HSPA5]), X-box binding protein-1 (XBP1) and activating transcription factor 6 (ATF6). In addition, glucosamine impaired insulin-stimulated 2-DG uptake in both rat and human myotubes. Interestingly, pretreatment of both rat and human myotubes with the chemical chaperones 4-phenylbutyric acid (PBA) or tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA), completely prevented the effect of glucosamine on both ER stress induction and insulin-induced glucose uptake. In both rat and human myotubes, glucosamine treatment reduced mRNA and protein levels of the gene encoding GLUT4 and mRNA levels of the main regulators of the gene encoding GLUT4 (myocyte enhancer factor 2 a [MEF2A] and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator 1 alpha [PGC1 alpha]). Again, PBA or TUDCA pretreatment prevented glucosamine-induced inhibition of GLUT4 (also known as SLC2A4), MEF2A and PGC1 alpha (also known as PPARGC1A). Finally, we showed that overproduction of ATF6 is sufficient to inhibit the expression of genes GLUT4, MEF2A and PGC1 alpha and that ATF6 silencing with a specific small interfering RNA is sufficient to completely prevent glucosamine-induced inhibition of GLUT4, MEF2A and PGC1 alpha in skeletal muscle cells. In this work we show that glucosamine-induced ER stress causes insulin resistance in both human and rat myotubes and impairs GLUT4 production and insulin-induced glucose uptake via an ATF6-dependent decrease of the GLUT4 regulators MEF2A and PGC1 alpha.