Glucose uptake and triglyceride synthesis in adipose tissue of spontaneously and renal hypertensive rats (alterations revealed by adrenalectomy).

Rats with renal and spontaneous hypertension do no differ from control normotensive rats in 14C-glucose uptake and triglyceride synthesis by the adipose tissue in vitro, both with and without insulin stimulation. Adrenalectomy (which eliminates the stabilizing effect of the corticosteroid hormones on the adipocyte membrane) reveals the differences between the hypertensive and normotensive rats in the response of the adipose tissue to insulin. While the adrenalectomized control rats show a significantly lowered "sensitivity" of the adipocytes to insulin, the adrenalectomized hypertensive rats do not reveal a noticeable change in glucose uptake and triglyceride synthesis under insulin stimulation of glucose transport (the adipose tissue of hypertensive rats "doesn't notice" adrenalectomy). The data obtained may indicate changes in the properties of the adipocyte membranes of rats with chronic arterial hypertension and suggest the presence of an extensive alteration of the function of cell membranes in both types of hypertension.