Postbinding defects of insulin action in human adipocytes from uremic patients

It is now well established that longstanding human uremia is associated with impaired in vivo insulin action on glucose utilization of peripheral target tissues. In an attempt to define the cellular basis of the uremic insulin resistance we studied insulin action in adipocytes from eight patients with undialyzed chronic uremia and from eight matched healthy controls. (125I)-Insulin binding to fat cells from uremic patients was normal. In contrast (14C)-D-glucose transport exhibited decreased sensitivity to insulin. The concentrations of insulin that elicited half-maximal response was 422 +/- 95 pmoles/liter in uremic patients and 179 +/- 38 pmoles/liter in normal subjects (P less than 0.01). The noninsulin- and the maximal insulin-stimulated glucose transport of adipocytes from uremic patients with normal. (14C)-D-glucose conversion to total lipids was also measured in these cells in the absence and presence of various insulin concentrations. Similar to the findings in transport studies the lipogenesis of fat cells from uremic patients had depressed sensitivity to insulin (half-maximal stimulation at 38 +/- 8 pmoles/liter in uremic patients and at 11 +/- 3 pmoles/liter in normal subjects, P less than 0.01) with unchanged noninsulin and maximal insulin-stimulated lipogenesis. Taken together these results suggest that the insulin resistance of adipocytes from patients with chronic uremia may be accounted for primarily by postbinding defects localized to glucose transport and metabolism.