Antilipolytic actions of vanadate and insulin in rat adipocytes mediated by distinctly different mechanisms

Vanadate, which mimics the biological effects of insulin, also inhibits lipolysis in rat adipocytes. Here we demonstrate that the antilipolytic effect of vanadate differs from that of insulin at least by the five following criteria: 1) vanadate inhibits lipolysis mediated by high (supraphysiological) concentrations of catecholamines; 2) vanadate antagonizes (Bu)2cAMP-mediated lipolysis; 3) vanadate antagonizes isobutylmethylxanthine-dependent lipolysis, 4) vanadate inhibits lipolysis mediated by okadaic acid; and 5) wortmannin, which blocks the antilipolytic effect of insulin, fails to block vanadate-mediated antilipolysis. Vanadate does activate phosphoinositol 3-kinase, and wortmannin blocks this activation. Our working hypothesis assumes that all of the insulin-like effects of vanadate, including antilipolysis, are initiated by the inhibition of protein phosphotyrosine phosphatases (PTPases). Among documented PTPase inhibitors we found that VOSO4 (oxidation state +4), several organic vanadyl compounds (+4), zinc (Zn2+), tungstate (W), and molybdate (Mo) also had antilipolytic activity. The order of potency was vanadyl acetylacetonate > or = VOSO4 > or = NaVO3 > or = vanadyl-dipicolinate > Zn2+ > W > Mo, and it correlated better with the inhibition of adipose membranal-PTPases in cell-free experiments. We have concluded that the antilipolytic effect of vanadate is 1) mechanistically distinct from that of insulin, 2) independent of phosphoinositol 3-kinase activation, and 3) independent of the lipolytic cascade. We also strongly suggest that the antilipolytic effect of vanadate emanates from inhibiting adipose membranal, rather than cytosolic PTPases, and present preliminary data showing distinct differences in catalysis between these two PTPase categories. Overall, the study indicates that antilipolysis can be manifested via alternative, insulin-independent, signal-transducing pathways.