Resveratrol Blunts Mitochondrial Loss in Slow and Mixed Skeletal Muscle Phenotypes of Non-Human Primates following a Long-Term High Fat/Sugar Diet

Mitochondrial biogenesis and destruction in skeletal muscle are coordinated by distinct signaling pathways that are influenced by internal and exogenous variables including, but not limited to, muscle phenotype, physical activity, dietary composition, or drug administration. Previously we found that long-term resveratrol administration (up to 480 mg/day) ameliorates the slow-to-fast phenotypic shift in soleus muscles and promotes the expression in slow myosin heavy chain in the mixed plantaris muscle of non-human primates consuming a high fat/sugar (HFS) diet. Here, we expand on these earlier findings by examining whether mitochondrial content and the markers that dictate their biogenesis and mitophagy/autophagy are similarly affected by HFS and/or influenced by resveratrol while consuming this diet (HFSR). Compared to controls (n = 9), there was a ∼20–25% decrease in mitochondrial content in HFS (n = 8) muscles as reflected in the COX2- and CYTB-to-GAPDH ratios using PCR analysis, which was blunted by resveratrol in HFSR (n = 7) soleus and, to a lesser degree, in plantaris muscles. A ∼1.5 and 3-fold increase in Rev-erb-α protein was detected in HFSR soleus and plantaris muscles compared to controls, respectively. Unlike in HFSR animals, HFS soleus and plantaris muscles exhibited a ∼2-fold elevation in phosphor-AMPKα (Thr172). HFS soleus muscles had elevated phosphorylated-to-total TANK binding protein-1 (TBK1) ratio suggesting an enhancement in mito/autophagic events. Taken together, resveratrol appears to blunt mitochondrial losses with a high fat/sugar diet by tempering mito/autophagy rather than promoting mitochondrial biogenesis, suggesting that the quantity of daily resveratrol supplement ingested and/or its long-term consumption are important considerations. Supplemental data for this article is available online at http://dx.doi.org/.