The influence of insulin on glucose permeability and metabolism of human granulocytes.

Viable human polymorphonuclear leukocytes isolated from peripheral blood were incubated for 1 h at 37 degrees C with variable concentrations of insulin in a saline medium buffered at pH 7.4. The hormone increased glucose consumption by about 40% without influencing the permeability of the membranes to glucose, whose uptake followed a passive diffusion process. The measurement of intermediates localized activation of glycolysis by insulin, down to 0.36 nM, at the phosphofructokinase step. However, the spectrophotometric measurement showed no activation of phosphofructokinase after preincubation with insulin of either intact granulocytes or crude or ultracentrifuged homogenates. The level of cyclic AMP, which is known to activate phosphofructokinase, was not modified by insulin; cyclic GMP did not activate the enzyme in the granulocyte extracts: neither of the two nucleotides can therefore be considered as a direct messenger of the action of insulin on phosphofructokinase. An important fraction of the extra glucose consumed under the influence of insulin was recovered as neither glycogen nor lactate, nor was it oxidized in the Krebs cycle. It might be assumed to have been converted into glycerolipids. However, insulin produced no detectable accumulation of triglycerides and activated neither the pentose phosphate pathway nor oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate. The fate of the extra glucose consumed under the influence of insulin therefore remains questionable.