Differential effect of PKC isoform on insulin- and phorbol ester-stimulated glucose uptake mechanism in rat adipocytes.

Insulin stimulates glucose uptake in association with phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase activation mechanisms in rat adipocytes. Insulin stimulated glucose uptake to 6.5-fold, and 12-o-tetradecanoyl phorbol 13-acetate (TPA) also stimulated glucose uptake to 4.5-fold in rat adipocytes. We examined these differences in glucose uptake, PKCzeta activation, and PI 3-kinase activation after stimulation with insulin and TPA. TPA stimulated PI 3-kinase activity and increased the p85 subunit of PI 3-kinase immunoreactivity in anti-phosphotyrosine antibody-immunoprecipitated protein. Insulin and TPA provoked increases in membrane PKCzeta immunoreactivity. The PI 3-kinase inhibitor, wortmannin, suppressed insulin-induced increases in glucose uptake, PI 3-kinase activity, and PKCzeta activation. Wortmannin also suppressed TPA-induced PI 3-kinase activity and PKCzeta activation but suppressed TPA-induced glucose uptake to only a small extent. The PKC inhibitor, Go6976, which only inhibits conventional PKCalpha and _, suppressed TPA-induced glucose uptake, but suppressed insulin-induced glucose uptake to only a small extent. On the other hand, the PKC inhibitor, RO32-0432, which inhibits conventional, novel, and atypical PKCs, markedly suppressed both insulin- and TPA-induced glucose uptake. These results suggest that insulin-induced glucose uptake is mainly mediated by PI 3-kinase-PKCzeta signaling, whereas phorbol ester-induced glucose uptake is mainly mediated by conventional PKC despite PI 3-kinase and PKCzeta activations.