Isolated ventricular cardiomyocytes obtained from lean and genetically (fa/fa) obese Zucker rats were used to correlate alterations of insulin-induced glucose transport activation and GLUT-4 translocation to possible defects of the insulin signaling cascade. Maximal stimulation with insulin was found to produce an unaltered translocation of GLUT-4 to the plasma membrane (4.2- and 3.7-fold increase for lean and obese rats, respectively). However, a largely reduced sensitivity of 3-O-methylglucose transport could be detected in obese rats at physiological doses of insulin (completely unresponsive at 8 x 10(-11) M compared with 3-fold stimulation of glucose transport in lean controls). Tyrosine phosphorylation of the insulin receptor beta-subunit and the insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) was stimulated identically in cardiomyocytes from both lean and obese rats. Labeling of cells with [33P]orthophosphate revealed a marked increase in the serine and/or threonine phosphorylation of IRS-1 in the obese group (370% of lean controls), with a concomitant reduction in IRS-1 abundance (30-40%). The reduced sensitivity of glucose transport at 8 x 10(-11) M insulin was then found to correlate to a completely blunted response of IRS-1-associated phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activity in cardiomyocytes from obese rats. Those data show that cardiac insulin resistance of obesity involves defective insulin signaling at low concentrations of the hormone, whereas GLUT-4 translocation is fully operative in the isolated cell. It is suggested that hyperphosphorylation of IRS-1 may significantly contribute to the pathogenesis of insulin resistance in the heart.