In healthy lean subjects, skeletal muscle displays metabolic flexibility, that is, it is capable of switching between predominantly lipid oxidation with high rates of fatty acid uptake during fasting conditions, and the suppression of lipid oxidation in favour of increased glucose uptake, oxidation and storage in response to insulin during the fed state. Insulin resistant states such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes are characterised by this loss of, or reduction in, fuel-switching ability. The aim is to develop a mathematical model of skeletal muscle fuel utilisation, that will enable an investigation of the dynamics of skeletal muscle glucose and lipid handling in response to a meal, as well as the effects of insulin on these dynamics.

Problem presented by
Laura Pickersgill, Unilever, and Ian MacDonald, Nottingham University

Study Group contributors
Helen Byrne (University of Nottingham)
Rebecca Gower (Industrial Mathematics KTN)
Poul Hjorth (Technical University of Denmark)
John King (University of Nottingham)
Anthony Lock (University of Oxford)
Tobias Locsei (University of Cambridge)
Nick McCullen (University of Bath)
Joanne Miller (University of Nottingham)
Ashley Pitcher (University of Oxford)
John Ward (Loughborough University)
Jonathan Wattis (University of Nottingham)