Growth hormone binding to cultured preadipocytes from obese fa/fa rats increases during cell differentiation.

Preadipocytes from 7 day-old obese Zucker rats and from their lean littermates were grown in primary culture. Specific binding of human growth hormone (hGH) to the cells is demonstrated. There is no change in hGH binding to preadipocytes from lean animals before (day 5 of the culture) and after adipose conversion (day 12). Moreover, addition of insulin to the culture medium does not affect the specific binding of 125I-hGH to the cells. On the contrary, when 1 nM insulin is added to the culture medium of preadipocytes from obese rats, the specific binding of 125I-hGH is enhanced during the cell differentiation, with a 3-fold increase in the number of binding sites. The functional significance of these additional GH sites in differentiated preadipocytes from obese rats has to be examined.