Failure of insulin to antagonize cAMP-mediated glycogenolysis in rat ventricular cardiomyocytes

Isolated rat ventricular cardiomyocytes were used to study the effects of insulin on glycogen metabolism in cells treated with various agents that activate adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase. Incubation of myocytes with isoproterenol produced a rapid concentration-dependent increase in cAMP concentration, cAMP-dependent protein kinase activity, and phosphorylase activity and a simultaneous decrease in the glycogen synthase activity ratio. Various cAMP analogues also produced a concentration-dependent increase in phosphorylase activity and a decline in the glycogen synthase activity ratio. Incubation of cells with insulin produced no change in basal phosphorylase activity but produced a rapid 40% increase in the glycogen synthase activity ratio. Inclusion of insulin in cell incubations containing increasing concentrations of isoproterenol did not modify the increases in cAMP concentration, protein kinase activity, or phosphorylase activity. Insulin also did not antagonize the ability of any of the cAMP analogues tested to activate phosphorylase, irrespective of the suitability of the particular cAMP analogue as a substrate for cAMP phosphodiesterases. The failure of insulin to antagonize the glycogenolytic effects of isoproterenol or cAMP analogues was paralleled by its failure to activate low-Km phosphodiesterase activity, but the cAMP analogue, 8-parachlorophenylthio-cAMP produced a small reproducible activation of the low-Km enzyme. In contrast to hepatocytes and adipocytes, where some effects of insulin appear to be due to activation of the phosphodiesterase and hydrolysis of cAMP, the effects in cardiomyocytes appear to be independent of an insulin-sensitive phosphodiesterase or of the effects on other components of the cAMP cascade.