Insulin and insulin receptor uptake into rat liver. Chloroquine action on receptor recycling.

In the present study, the effect of chloroquine on both insulin and receptor distribution was examined in vivo. Insulin injection (25 nmol/100 g body wt) caused a marked accumulation of both insulin and its receptor in purified hepatic Golgi fractions by 15 min postinjection. Percoll fractionation of parent Golgi fractions resolved two endocytic components of low (rho = 1.040-1.050) and high (rho = 1.053-1.064) density in which the relative distribution of insulin binding sites was unaltered by chloroquine. Chloroquine significantly accumulated in the high-density region of the Percoll gradient consistent with this being a low pH compartment. 125I-insulin accumulated first in the low-density (1 min) and subsequently in the high-density region (5-10 min) of Percoll-subfractionated Golgi fractions. Chloroquine treatment caused marked accumulation of 125I-insulin in the high-density compartment with substantial retention of radiolabel therein at 20 min postinjection. 125I-insulin extracted from the Percoll fractions was comparably intact in control and chloroquine-treated rats. These data suggest that the chloroquine-accumulating, high-density compartment of hepatic Golgi fractions is the site of dissociation of internalized insulin-receptor complexes before degradation of the ligand and receptor recycling.