.-We investigated the levels of adrenomedullin (AM) system during the process of preadipocyte differentiation and its role in lipid metabolism and cellular signaling mechanism in differentiated adipocytes. We cultured rat preadipocytes and measured the following during the process of differentiation: two molecular forms of AM in the culture medium using a specific immunoradiometric assay and gene expression of AM and its receptor component using RT-PCR analysis. In differentiated adipocytes, we measured the effects of AM on the intracellular cAMP level, lipolysis, glucose incorporation, and the protein levels. Two molecular forms of AM were secreted into the medium, and the AM-mature/AM-total ratio was increased after 6 days of differentiation. Cultured rat preadipocytes highly expressed the genes of AM and its receptor components at day 1, and they increased at day 10. Administration of AM to preadipocytes increased the number of Oil Red O-positive adipocytes and spectrophotometric absorbance of Oil Red O. AM dose dependently increased cAMP level and lipolysis, and its effect was blocked by CGRP(8-37). Isoproterenol increased lipolysis, and AM had additive effects on isoproterenol-induced lipolysis. KT5720 and U0126 significantly inhibited the AM-induced lipolysis, whereas KT5720, but not U0126, significantly inhibited the isoproterenol-induced lipolysis. AM increased glucose incorporation and its effect was blocked by wortmannin. Western blot analysis revealed that AM increased phospho PKA, ERK, and Akt. These results indicate that AM and its receptor component are highly expressed in cultured adipocytes and may play a role in lipid metabolism via a different signaling pathway.adipocyte; calcitonin receptor like receptor; receptor activity-modifying proteins; lipolysis ADRENOMEDULLIN (AM) IS A POTENT hypotensive peptide that consists of 52 amino acids with an intramolecular disulfide bond and shares slight homology with calcitonin gene-related peptide (12). AM acts through seven-transmembrane domain G protein-coupled receptor, calcitonin receptor-like receptor (CLR), which associate with the receptor activity-modifying proteins (RAMP) 2 and RAMP 3 (17). AM circulates in human plasma, and the plasma AM concentration is increased in patients with cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension, renal failure, heart failure, and myocardial infarction, in proportion to the severity of the disease (7,19,31). AM messenger RNA is highly expressed in the kidneys, lung, vasculature, and cardiac ventricles (12). AM is considered to act as an autocrine and/or paracrine factor, and increased AM in various pathological conditions exerts cardiorenoprotective effects via antiapoptotic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidative actions (8,22,28). These facts suggest that AM is involved in the regulation of the cardiovascular system.Recent studies demonstrated that rat adipose tissue contains AM mRNA (14, 23), and adipose tissue obtained from rats fed a high-fat diet expresses greater amounts of AM than that obtained from rats fed ...