Atypical Antipsychotic Drugs Directly Impair Insulin Action in Adipocytes: Effects on Glucose Transport, Lipogenesis, and Antilipolysis

Treatment with second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) has been associated with weight gain and the development of diabetes mellitus, although the mechanisms are unknown. We tested the hypothesis that SGAs exert direct cellular effects on insulin action and substrate metabolism in adipocytes. We utilized two cultured cell models including 3T3-L1 adipocytes and primary cultured rat adipocytes, and tested for effects of SGAs risperidone (RISP), clozapine (CLZ), olanzapine (OLZ), and quetiapine (QUE), together with conventional antipsychotic drugs butyrophenone (BUTY), and trifluoperazine (TFP), over a wide concentration range from 1 to 500 μM. The effects of antipsychotic drugs on basal and insulin-stimulated rates of glucose transport were studied at 3 h, 15 h, and 3 days. Both CLZ and OLZ (but not RISP) at doses as low as 5 μM were able to significantly decrease the maximal insulin-stimulated glucose transport rate by ∼40% in 3T3-L1 cells, whereas CLZ and RISP reduced insulin-stimulated glucose transport rates in primary cultured rat adipocytes by ∼50–70%. Conventional drugs (BUTY and TFP) did not affect glucose transport rates. Regarding intracellular glucose metabolism, both SGAs (OLZ, QUE, RISP) and conventional drugs (BUTY and TFP) increased basal and/or insulin-stimulated glucose oxidation rates, whereas rates of lipogenesis were increased by CLZ, OLZ, QUE, and BUTY. Finally, rates of lipolysis in response to isoproterenol were reduced by the SGAs (CLZ, OLZ, QUE, RISP), but not by BUTY or TFP. These experiments demonstrate that antipsychotic drugs can differentially affect insulin action and metabolism through direct cellular effects in adipocytes. However, only SGAs were able to impair the insulin-responsive glucose transport system and to impair lipolysis in adipocytes. Thus, SGAs directly induce insulin resistance and alter lipogenesis and lipolysis in favor of progressive lipid accumulation and adipocyte enlargement. These effects of SGAs on adipocytes could explain, in part, the association of SGAs with weight gain and diabetes.