Increasing hepatic glycogen moderates the diabetic phenotype in insulin-deficient Akita mice

Hepatic glycogen metabolism is impaired in diabetes. We previously demonstrated that strategies to increase liver glycogen content in a high-fat-diet mouse model of obesity and insulin resistance led to a reduction in food intake and ameliorated obesity and glucose tolerance. These effects were accompanied by a decrease in insulin levels, but whether this decrease contributed to the phenotype observed in this animal was unclear. Here we sought to evaluate this aspect directly, by examining the long-term effects of increasing liver glycogen in an animal model of insulin-deficient and monogenic diabetes, namely the Akita mouse, which is characterized by reduced insulin production. We crossed Akita mice with animals overexpressing protein targeting to glycogen (PTG) in the liver to generate Akita mice with increased liver glycogen content (Akita-PTG^OE). Akita-PTG^OE animals showed lower glycemia, lower food intake, and decreased water consumption and urine output compared with Akita mice. Furthermore, Akita-PTG^OE mice showed a restoration of the hepatic energy state and a normalization of gluconeogenesis and glycolysis back to nondiabetic levels. Moreover, hepatic lipogenesis, which is reduced in Akita mice, was reverted in Akita-PTG^OE animals. These results demonstrate that strategies to increase liver glycogen content lead to the long-term reduction of the diabetic phenotype, independently of circulating insulin.