Insulin receptor kinase is hyperresponsive in adipocytes of young obese Zucker rats

Thirty-day-old obese Zucker rats have hyperresponsive adipose tissue, whereas their skeletal muscle normally responds to insulin in vitro. To further substantiate the role of insulin receptor tyrosine kinase in insulin action, we have studied the kinase activity of receptors obtained from adipocytes and skeletal muscle of these young obese Zucker rats. Insulin receptors, partially purified by wheat germ agglutinin agarose chromatography from plasma membranes of isolated adipocytes or from skeletal muscles, were studied in a cell-free system for auto-phosphorylation and for their ability to phosphorylate a synthetic glutamate-tyrosine copolymer. For an identical amount of receptors, the insulin stimulatory action on its beta-subunit receptor phosphorylation was markedly augmented in preparations from hyperresponsive adipocytes of obese animals compared with lean rats. Basal phosphorylation of adipocyte insulin receptors was nearly identical in lean and obese animals. Similarly the capacity of adipocyte insulin receptors to catalyze the phosphorylation of the synthetic substrate in response to insulin was increased. By contrast, the kinase activity of insulin receptors prepared from normally insulin-responsive skeletal muscle was similar in preparations of lean and obese rats. These results show that a state of hyperresponsiveness to insulin is correlated with a parallel increase of insulin receptor kinase activity suggesting an important role for this activity in insulin action.