Glucagon‐like peptide‐1 elicits vasodilation in adipose tissue and skeletal muscle in healthy men. Issue 3 (8th February 2017) - Asmar, Ali
Abstract: In healthy subjects, we recently demonstrated that during acute administration of GLP‐1, cardiac output increased significantly, whereas renal blood flow remained constant. We therefore hypothesize that GLP‐1 induces vasodilation in other organs, for example, adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, and/or splanchnic tissues. Nine healthy men were examined twice in random order during a 2‐hour infusion of either GLP‐1 (1.5 pmol kg −1 min −1 ) or saline. Cardiac output was continuously estimated noninvasively concomitantly with measurement of intra‐arterial blood pressure. Subcutaneous, abdominal adipose tissue blood flow (ATBF) was measured by the 133 Xenon clearance technique. Leg and splanchnic blood flow were measured by Fick's Principle, using indocyanine green as indicator. In the GLP‐1 study, cardiac output increased significantly together with a significant increase in arterial pulse pressure and heart rate compared with the saline study. Subcutaneous, abdominal ATBF and leg blood flow increased significantly during the GLP‐1 infusion compared with saline, whereas splanchnic blood flow response did not differ between the studies. We conclude that in healthy subjects, GLP‐1 increases cardiac output acutely due to a GLP‐1‐induced vasodilation in adipose tissue and skeletal muscle together with an increase in cardiac work. Abstract : In the present randomized, placebo‐controlled, and single‐blinded experiment, state of the art in vivo techniques were used to demonstrate that physiologically increased plasma GLP‐1 levels increase blood flow in adipose tissue (A and B) and skeletal muscle (C and D), whereas splanchnic blood flow remains unchanged (E and F). Together with an increase in cardiac work and thereby blood flow, this can explain the simultaneous increase in cardiac output in healthy lean subjects.