To clarify the roles of insulin receptor substrate (IRS) family proteins in phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase activation and insulin actions in adipocytes, we investigated the intracellular localization of IRS family proteins and PI 3-kinase activation in response to insulin by fractionation of mouse adipocytes from wild-type and IRS-1 null mice. In adipocytes from wild-type mice, tyrosine-phosphorylated IRS-1 and IRS-2, which were found to associate with PI 3-kinase in response to insulin, were detected in the plasma membrane (PM) and low-density microsome (LDM) fractions. By contrast, tyrosine-phosphorylated IRS-3 (pp60), which was found to associate with PI 3-kinase, was predominantly localized in the PM fraction. In adipocytes from IRS-1-null mice, insulin-stimulated PI 3-kinase activity in anti-phosphotyrosine (␣PY) immunoprecipitates in the LDM fraction was almost exclusively mediated via IRS-2 and was reduced to 25%; however, insulin-stimulated PI 3-kinase activity in the PM fraction was primarily mediated via IRS-3 and was reduced to 60%. To determine the potential functional impact of the distinct subcellular localization of IRSs and associating PI 3-kinase activity on adipocyte-specific metabolic actions, we examined lipolysis in IRS-1 null mice. The level of isoproterenol-induced lipolysis was increased 5.1-fold in adipocytes from IRS-1 null mice as compared with wildtype mice. Moreover, hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) protein was increased 4.3-fold in adipocytes from IRS-1-null mice compared with wild-type mice, and HSL mRNA expression was also increased. The antilipolytic effect of insulin in IRS-1 null adipocytes, however, was comparable to that in wild-type mice. Thus, discordance between these two insulin actions as well as the transcriptional and translational effect (HSL mRNA and protein regulation) and the PM effect (antilipolysis) of insulin may be explained by distinct roles of both PI 3-kinase activity associated with IRS-1/IRS-2 and PI 3-kinase activity associated with IRS-3 in insulin actions related to their subcellular localization. Diabetes
50:1455-1463, 2001I nsulin stimulates the tyrosine phosphorylation (via the tyrosine kinase of the insulin receptor) of several endogenous substrates, such as insulin receptor substrate (IRS) family proteins, Grb2-associated binder-1, and Shc (1-11). These proteins interact through their phosphotyrosine residues with Src homology-2 (SH2) domain-containing proteins, such as the regulatory 85-kDa subunit (p85) of phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase, Grb2, Crk,. Among these, PI 3-kinase activity has been shown to be required for metabolic actions of insulin, such as glucose transport, glycogen synthesis, and antilipolysis (16 -18). The IRS family proteins IRS-1, -2, -3, and -4 contain a conserved pleckstrin homology (PH) domain and a phosphotyrosine-binding (PTB) domain that interacts with a phosphorylated NPXY motif in the insulin receptor at the NH 2 -terminus (3-9).IRS-1 has been shown to be the major substrate of the insulin receptor kinase, and we ...