The effect of insulin on the synthesis of lipoprotein lipase in rat adipose tissue.

A novel method is described for measuring the incorporation of radiolabelled amino acids into rat adipose tissue lipoprotein lipase (LPL) in vitro. Following the incubation of epididymal fat-bodies in the presence of [3H]leucine, the radiolabelled enzyme was isolated from extracts of the delipidated tissue, in a single step, by affinity chromatography on heparin-Sepharose, SDS-PAGE of such purified enzyme preparations revealed the presence of a single radiolabelled polypeptide of molecular weight 56 000, corresponding to LPL. In the presence of insulin, the rates of incorporation into LPL and into total tissue protein were increased respectively by 2.3 fold and 1.7 fold, compared to controls. It is concluded that part of the increase in incorporation into LPL is due to the general stimulus of protein synthesis in the tissue by insulin. Additionally insulin may either specifically increase the rate of synthesis or decrease the rate of degradation of the enzyme.