Adiponectin increases insulin sensitivity by increasing fatty acid oxidation, resulting in reduced circulating fatty acid levels and reduced triglyceride (TG) content in muscle [
25]. Energy homeostasis is vital for continuous cardiac pumping activity, and adiponectin controls energy homeostasis by modifying through glucose uptake [
26]. In our previous studies, serum adiponectin was shown to be expressed at lower levels in OLETF rats than in LETO rats, and ALA increased adiponectin levels in OLETF rats. [
27]. AMPK is phosphorylated and activated by its upstream kinase, LKB1, and both are conserved serine/threonine kinases that regulate metabolism [
28]. In this study, diabetes-prone OLETF rats had low cardiac LKB1 expression, which was increased by ALA administration. This result is consistent with the report that obese insulin-resistant Zucker rats have decreased LKB1 content in muscle [
29]. Moreover, the lower expression of LKB1 in the heart correlated closely with lower AMPK/ACC signalling pathway activity. These results support a role for ALA in promoting the effects of SIRT1 activation and LKB1-AMPK signalling on insulin sensitivity [
30,
31]. SREBP1, which is negatively regulated by AMPK, is a major regulator of fatty acid synthesis [
32]. Consistent with the observation that AMPK inhibits lipogenesis by reducing SREBP1 expression and by activating glucose uptake via GLUT4 upregulation [
27,
33], ALA reversed the increase in the levels of SREBP1 and decreased the levels of GLUT4 in OLETF rat hearts. In our previous study, we also confirmed the effect of ALA on SREBP1 and GLUT4 expression in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease of OLETF rats [
27]. SREBP1 expression is significantly higher in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease than in control animals [
34]. ALA reduces circulating free fatty acids (FFA) and TG levels by reducing lipid accumulation in non-adipose tissue as well as in adipose tissue [
27,
35]. In addition, our study confirms that ALA may contribute to inhibit the proteolytic cleavage and nuclear translocation of SREBP-1 in the heart of diabetic OLETF rats. This finding is in agreement with the results reported by Hao et al. [
36] that high glucose increase lipogenesis by increasing precursor and mature (cleaved form) segment of SREBP-1 in renal tubular cells and HKC cells. The roles of cardiac glucose uptake and insulin action have been demonstrated in mice with cardiac-specific ablation of GLUT4, which developed cardiac hypertrophy resembling that of the diabetic heart [
37]. In OLETF rats, caloric restriction improves insulin resistance in association with increased adipocyte-specific GLUT4 expression. It has been reported that impairment of glucose uptake in obesity is closely associated with the reduction of cellular GLUT4 content and translocation into plasma membrane [
38,
39]. Our study shows that the protein expression of both total lysates and plasma membrane is decreased, indicating that glucose metabolism would be reduced in the heart of OLETF rats. However, ALA enhanced cellular GLUT4 contents and translocation. This finding is in agreement with the results reported by Park et al. [
38] and Guo et al. [
33] that caloric restriction or telmisartan reduces insulin resistance by improving GLUT4 gene expression and GLUT4 translocation to the plasma membrane. Penumathsa et al. [
40] also demonstrated that the antioxidant resveratrol enhances GLUT4 translocation in the STZ-induced diabetic heart. This suggests that obesity-induced cardiac dysfunction may be attributable to chronic alterations in cardiac glucose and lipid metabolism and in the levels of circulating adipokines, including adiponectin.