Insulin receptor substrate 1 mediates the stimulatory effect of insulin on GLUT4 translocation in transfected rat adipose cells.

Insulin signaling is initiated at least in part by activation of the insulin receptor tyrosine kinase and subsequent phosphorylation of cellular substrates such as insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1). Previous studies have focused on the role of IRS-1 in the mitogenic actions of insulin. We have now investigated the possible role of IRS-1 in mediating the effect of insulin to stimulate glucose transport in a physiologically relevant insulin target tissue. In this study, we transfected rat adipose cells in primary culture with an antisense ribozyme directed against rat IRS-1. Expression of the ribozyme in these cells caused a 4.4-fold increase in the concentration of insulin required to achieve half-maximal stimulation of the translocation of cotransfected epitope-tagged GLUT4 without changing the maximal insulin response. Overexpression of human IRS-1 increased the basal cell surface GLUT4 to nearly the maximal level in the absence of insulin. When the ribozyme (specific to rat IRS-1) was cotransfected along with human IRS-1, the insulin dose-response curve was shifted to the left when compared with cells transfected with the ribozyme alone. These data provide strong support for the hypothesis that IRS-1 plays a role in insulin-stimulated glucose transport in insulin-responsive cells.