Lactate production is a prioritized feature of adipocyte metabolism

Adipose tissue is essential for whole-body glucose homeostasis, with a primary role in lipid storage. It has been previously observed that lactate production is also an important metabolic feature of adipocytes, but its relationship to adipose and whole-body glucose disposal remains unclear. Therefore, using a combination of metabolic labeling techniques, here we closely examined lactate production of cultured and primary mammalian adipocytes. Insulin treatment increased glucose uptake and conversion to lactate, with the latter responding more to insulin than did other metabolic fates of glucose. However, lactate production did not just serve as a mechanism to dispose of excess glucose, because we also observed that lactate production in adipocytes did not solely depend on glucose availability and even occurred independently of glucose metabolism. This suggests that lactate production is prioritized in adipocytes. Furthermore, knocking down lactate dehydrogenase specifically in the fat body of Drosophila flies lowered circulating lactate and improved whole-body glucose disposal. These results emphasize that lactate production is an additional metabolic role of adipose tissue beyond lipid storage and release.