A reduction of skeletal muscle DHA content does not result in impaired whole body glucose tolerance or skeletal muscle basal insulin signaling in otherwise healthy mice

Skeletal muscle is the primary location of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake. EPA and DHA supplementation has been observed to improve skeletal muscle insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in models of metabolic dysfunction. Fads2−/− knockout mice cannot endogenously produce long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Our results show that the absence of DHA in skeletal muscle is not detrimental to whole body glucose homeostasis in healthy mice.