The relationship of microvesicles to the plasmalemma of rat adipocytes

Ruthenium red binding demonstrates that the extensive microvesicle system of isolated rat adipocytes is, for the most part, open to and continuous with the plasmalemma proper. Morphometric estimates indicate that insulin treatment has no effect on the relationship between microvesicles and the cell surface. Neither does insulin affect the apparent lack of pinocytotic activity of these vesicles as judged by a time course analysis of cells incubated with horseradish peroxidase, which is bound to the membrane of the vesicles, but is not internalized. Insulin does produce a small but repeatable and measurable increase in average diameter of the microvesicles from 73 to 78 nm. Unlike the positively charged ruthenium red, which binds to both plasmalemmal as well as microvesicular surfaces, cationic ferritin did not readily bind to microvesicle membranes, a result indicating some distinction between the two membrane surfaces. The implications of the lack of dramatic visible morphological effects of insulin upon the adipocyte plasmalemma and it's associated microvesicles are discussed in light of the proposed role of insulin as a mediater of translocation of membrane-associated transporters to and from the cytoplasm.