Chronic exposure of rat fat cells to insulin enhances lipolysis and activation of partially purified hormone-sensitive lipase.

The activity of adipose tissue hormone-sensitive lipase in animals with hyperinsulinemia has been reported to be increased compared with that in control animals. We examined whether this results from a direct effect of insulin on the tissue and whether it is accompanied by alteration in the regulation of lipolysis. When rat epididymal fat pads are incubated in culture medium with bovine serum albumin for 2-4 h with 2 ng/ml or 50 microU/ml of insulin, hormone-sensitive lipase activity in the postmicrosomal supernatant fraction after acid precipitation and activation with ATP-Mg2+ increases significantly compared with preparations from tissues incubated with the vehicle. The specific activities of hormone-sensitive lipase in sonicates of adipocytes after primary culture with insulin at concentrations from 10 to 4000 ng/ml (250 microU to 100 mU/ml) increase in an insulin-dose-related manner. Lipolysis in response to 10(-7) M isoproterenol also increases in an insulin-dose-dependent manner. Enhancement of isoproterenol-mediated lipolysis is not attributable to a difference in the triglyceride content of the cells. Lipolysis caused by the beta-agonist could be completely blocked by the simultaneous presence of insulin in both control and insulin-treated cells reflecting normal responsiveness of both types of cells to the acute effect of insulin. Although an increase in lipolysis is seen with norepinephrine and growth hormone after insulin treatment, other lipolytic agents such as ACTH, thyrotropin, and glucagon evoke similar responses in insulin-treated and control cells. The simultaneous presence of growth hormone and insulin during the 16-h culture results in additive effects on the subsequent response of the cells to 10(-7) M isoproterenol compared with the responses of the cells cultured with each hormone alone. beta-Agonist-mediated cAMP accumulation in the presence of Ro-20.1724, a specific phosphodiesterase inhibitor, is significantly higher in cells cultured in the presence of insulin than in control cells. Forskolin (1-25 microM) increases the lipolytic responses of insulin-treated cells compared with control cells, but the maximal response of the insulin-treated cells to forskolin is lower than that to isoproterenol. We conclude that changes produced by chronic insulin treatment involve more than one site along the lipolytic cascade.