. Pre-B cell colony enhancing factor induces Nampt-dependent translocation of the insulin receptor out of lipid microdomains in A549 lung epithelial cells. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 308: E324 -E333, 2015. First published December 17, 2014 doi:10.1152/ajpendo.00006.2014.-Pre-B cell colony-enhancing factor (PBEF) is a highly conserved pleiotropic protein reported to be an alternate ligand for the insulin receptor (IR). We sought to clarify the relationship between PBEF and insulin signaling by evaluating the effects of PBEF on the localization of the IR chain to lipid rafts in A549 epithelial cells. We isolated lipid rafts from A549 cells and detected the IR by immunoprecipitation from raft fractions or whole cell lysates. Cells were treated with rPBEF, its enzymatic product nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), or the Nampt inhibitor daporinad to study the effect of PBEF on IR movement. We used coimmunoprecipitation studies in cells transfected with PBEF and IR constructs to detect interactions between PBEF, the IR, and caveolin-1 (Cav-1). PBEF was present in both lipid raft and nonraft fractions, whereas the IR was found only in lipid raft fractions of resting A549 cells. The IR-, PBEF-, and Cav-1-coimmunoprecipitated rPBEF treatment resulted in the movement of IR-and tyrosine-phosphorylated Cav-1 from lipid rafts to nonrafts, an effect that could be blocked by daporinad, suggesting that this effect was facilitated by the Nampt activity of PBEF. The addition of PBEF to insulin-treated cells resulted in reduced Akt phosphorylation of both Ser 473 and Thr 308 . We conclude that PBEF can inhibit insulin signaling through the IR by Nampt-dependent promotion of IR translocation into the nonraft domains of A549 epithelial cells. PBEFinduced alterations in the spatial geometry of the IR provide a mechanistic explanation for insulin resistance in inflammatory states associated with upregulation of PBEF.pre-B cell colony-enhancing factor; nicotinamide phosphoribosyl transferase; lipid rafts; insulin; insulin receptor; caveolin-1; signaling; phosphorylation CELLULAR RESPONSES TO STIMULI from the microenvironment are dependent upon the capacity of proteins in the cell membrane to aggregate and dissociate, and so they create multiprotein platforms that initiate intracellular signaling and lead to gene expression or repression within the nucleus. How these dynamic interactions are facilitated is incompletely understood. Lipid rafts are small, self-organizing dynamic membrane domains enriched in cholesterol, sphingolipid, and other proteins that are hypothesized to contribute to protein-protein interactions within the cell membrane (64,66,66), although whether lipids per se mediate protein sorting or whether protein localization within the membrane is a function of actin associating with membrane sphingolipids remains controversial (35).Caveolae represent a particular type of lipid raft that appears as a flask-shaped invagination of the cell surface (2). The formation and maintenance of caveolae depends on the pre...