Muscular response and adaptation to diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is an epidemic medical challenge that threatens the health and life quality of people worldwide. DM impairs metabolic, neural and vascular function and thus has profound impacts on different systems and organs in the body. Though continuous endeavour has been made to study its etiology and mechanisms, no cure for DM has yet been found. DM development may be multi-factorial. The skeletal muscle is one of the most important systems, involved in the development of DM, and affected by insulin. DM induces diverse functional, metabolic, and structural changes in the skeletal muscle. DM reduces the functional capacity of skeletal muscle leading to muscle weakness, causes metabolic disturbance characterized by reduced cellular glucose uptake and fatty acid oxidation, and structural changes with muscle atrophy, augmented lipid deposition, decreased mitochondria as well as muscle fiber transformation. DM-induced changes in the skeletal muscle seem to be dependent on types and severity of DM as well as on muscle fibers. The central mechanism underlying these changes is impaired insulin action in the skeletal muscle.