Insulin and IGF-1 receptors regulate complex-I dependent mitochondrial bioenergetics and supercomplexes via FoxOs in muscle.

Decreased skeletal muscle strength and mitochondrial dysfunction are characteristic of diabetes. Action of insulin and IGF-1 through insulin receptor (IR) and IGF-1 receptor (IGF1R) maintain muscle mass via suppression of FoxOs, but whether FoxO activation coordinates atrophy in concert with mitochondrial dysfunction is unknown. We show that mitochondrial respiration and complex-I activity were decreased in streptozotocin (STZ) diabetic muscle, but these defects were reversed following muscle-specific FoxO1/3/4 triple knockout in STZ-FoxO TKO. In the absence of systemic glucose or lipid abnormalities, muscle-specific IR knockout (M-IR-/-) or combined IR/IGF1R knockout (MIGIRKO) impaired mitochondrial respiration, decreased ATP production, and increased ROS. These mitochondrial abnormalities were not present in muscle-specific IR/IGF1R and FoxO1/3/4 quintuple knockout mice (M-QKO). Acute tamoxifen-inducible deletion of IR/IGF1R also decreased muscle pyruvate respiration, complex-I activity, and supercomplex assembly. Although autophagy was increased when IR/IGF1R were deleted in muscle, mitophagy was not increased. Mechanistically, RNA-seq revealed that complex-I core subunits were decreased in STZ-diabetic and MIGIRKO muscle, and these changes were not present with FoxO knockout in STZ-FoxO TKO and M-QKO. Thus, insulin-deficient diabetes or loss of insulin/IGF-1 action in muscle decreases complex-I driven mitochondrial respiration and supercomplex assembly, in part by FoxO-mediated repression of Complex-I subunit expression.