THE EFFECT OF INSULIN ON HUMAN ADIPOSE TISSUE

Abstract

The effects of insulin on glucose transport and dissimilation have been studied in the rat fat pad and in human omentum. Intracellular glucose could not be demonstrated in the non-diabetic rat fat pad, with or without insulin. Slices of omentum, obtained during surgery from diabetic and non-diabetic patients, were incubated in a bicarbonate medium with a glucose concentration of 5.6 mM. Omentum from non-diabetic patients had intracellular glucose while diabetic tissue had none. Diabetic tissue had a significantly lower glucose uptake. In both, insulin stimulated glucose uptake in inverse relation to the basal uptake; but for comparable basal uptakes, the response to insulin was decreased in diabetic tissue. Glucose phosphorylation in omental tissue from non-diabetic humans had an apparent Kmof 1.10 m M and a Vmaxof 1.44 mg/g hour.Insulin (0.1 units/ml), bovine or human serum albumin, or a combination of insulin and bovine albumin, each increased glucose utilization by slices of non-diabetic omentum without affecting the intracellular glucose content or the free fatty acid content. In omental homogenates (cell-free), insulin and bovine serum albumin each increased the glucose utilization. In the presence of albumin, insulin increased the utilization only after the addition of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and phosphohexose isomerase in amounts sufficient to establish that hexokinase was rate-limiting for glucose utilization.It is concluded that (A) in diabetic human omentum and in normal rat fat pad, transport is rate-limiting in glucose utilization; (B) insulin and albumin each stimulate both transport and phosphorylation in human omentum; (C) in human diabetes, the glucose transport process of omentum has a decreased basal rate and a decreased responsiveness to insulin.