Studies on a protein kinase inhibitor-insensitive, phospholipase C-sensitive pathway of lipolysis in rat adipocytes

Abstract

Endogenous lipid droplets were prepared by subjecting fat cells to hypotonic shock and Triton X-100 treatment. The endogenous lipid droplets were found to show lipolysis in response to epinephrine, but not to show lipogenesis from glucose in response to insulin. These results indicated that the preparation of endogenous lipid droplets did not contain any intact fat cells capable of insulin-stimulated lipogenesis. Results with these endogenous lipid droplets showed that protein kinase inhibitor inhibited protein kinase-mediated hormone-sensitive lipase activity but did not reduce epinephrine-induced lipolysis. Cyclic AMP and dibutyryl cyclic AMP induced lipolytic activity in the presence of 80 mM KCl and their activities were not inhibited by protein kinase inhibitor. Phospholipase C inhibited epinephrine, cyclic AMP and dibutyryl cyclic AMP-induced lipolysis, but did not affect the lipolytic activity of either the activated or non-activated form of hormone-sensitive lipase. These results indicate the existence of a protein kinase inhibitor-insensitive and phospholipase C-sensitive lipolytic pathway in rat adipocytes.