Abstract: Objective To study the effect of chronic intermittent hypoxia-induced inflammatory cytokines and reoxygenation on
glucose transporter 4 (GLUT-4) expression in rat skeletal muscles. Methods Twenty-four male Sprague-Dawley rats were
randomly assigned to blank control group, chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) group, and reoxygenation group. At the end of
the experiment, fasting blood glucose (FBG), fasting blood insulin (FINS) and serum inflammatory cytokine levels were
measured with glucose oxidase-peroxidase, insulin radioimmunoassay and ELISA, respectively. Homeostasis model
assessment (IRI) was used to evaluate insulin resistance in the rats, and GLUT-4 protein expression in the skeletal muscles was
measured with Western blotting. Results Compared with the blank control group, CIH resulted in significantly increased
fasting blood glucose, blood insulin levels and insulin resistance index (IRI) (P<0.05); fasting blood glucose was significantly
elevated in reoxygenation group (P<0.05). Inflammatory cytokines levels (IL-6 and TNF-α) were significantly higher in CIH
group than in the blank control and reoxygenation groups (P<0.05), and were higher in reoxygenation group than in the blank
control group. GLUT-4 expression in the skeletal muscles was significantly reduced after CIH (P<0.05) but increased after
subsequent reoxygenation (P<0.05). Conclusions CIH can cause increased release of inflammatory cytokines to lower GLUT-4
protein expression in the skeletal muscles, which contributes to insulin resistance in adult rats.