C lose to one half of all protein in the body is contained in the musculature.
This protein mass serves two quite different purposes. The second, perhaps less obvious function, is to support general body energy metabolism. When necessary, amino acid carbon is removed from the muscle and used for gluconeogenesis by the liver. A structurally related group of steroid hormones, glucocorticoids, express the systemic demand for amino acid carbon from the musculature. The central focus of the work in this laboratory is in understanding the mechanism by which the systemic demand for amino acid carbon is discriminately distributed amongst the various muscles of the body.