Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Clinical Trial
. 2007 Sep;92(9):3646-52.
doi: 10.1210/jc.2007-0552. Epub 2007 Jun 12.

Gender-related differences in the metabolic response to fasting

Maarten R Soeters  1 , Hans P Sauerwein, Johanna E Groener, Johannes M Aerts, Mariëtte T Ackermans, Jan F C Glatz, Eric Fliers, Mireille J Serlie
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Gender-related differences in the metabolic response to fasting

Maarten R Soeters et al. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2007 Sep.

Abstract

Context: Free fatty acids (FFA) may induce insulin resistance via synthesis of intramyocellular ceramide. During fasting, women have lower plasma glucose levels than men despite higher plasma FFA, suggesting protection from FFA-induced insulin resistance.

Objective: We studied whether the relative protection from FFA-induced insulin resistance during fasting in women is associated with lower muscle ceramide concentrations compared with men. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES AND DESIGN: After a 38-h fast, measurements of glucose and lipid fluxes and muscle ceramide and fatty acid translocase/CD36 were performed before and after a hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp.

Results: Plasma glucose levels were significantly lower in women than men with a trend for a lower endogenous glucose production in women, whereas FFA and lipolysis were significantly higher. Insulin-mediated peripheral glucose uptake was not different between sexes. There was no gender difference in muscle ceramide in the basal state, and ceramide did not correlate with peripheral glucose uptake. Muscle fatty acid translocase/CD36 was not different between sexes in the basal state and during the clamp.

Conclusion: After 38 h of fasting, plasma FFA were higher and plasma glucose was lower in women compared with men. The higher plasma FFA did not result in differences in peripheral insulin sensitivity, possibly because of similar muscle ceramide and fatty acid translocase/CD36 levels in men and women. We suggest that during fasting, women are relatively protected from FFA-induced insulin resistance by preventing myocellular accumulation of ceramide.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources