The GH receptor in adipocytes is a glycoprotein that has a half-life of less than 1 h. After 2 h of treatment with the alkaloid swainsonine, which interferes with carbohydrate processing, virtually all of the GH receptors on the surface of adipocytes are replaced with receptors whose carbohydrate side-chains are incomplete. We examined the effects of swainsonine on the responsiveness of adipose tissue to GH to determine whether these receptors, which bind GH normally, retain biological competence. In the concentration range of 100-300 ng/ml human (h) GH rapidly evokes insulin-like responses in adipose tissue or adipocytes that have been deprived of GH for at least 3 h. hGH, at concentrations ranging from 1-10 ng/ml, also increases lipolysis after a delay of at least 2 h. Pretreatment with 50 micrograms/ml swainsonine failed to influence insulin-like responsiveness to hGH, as judged by increased glucose oxidation, but nearly completely abolished the lipolytic response. Pretreatment with swainsonine, however, did not reduce lipolysis in response to isoproterenol, suggesting that signal transmission rather than the lipolytic apparatus per se had been affected. To determine whether the same receptors mediate lipolytic and insulin-like responses, the binding properties of hGH were compared to those of Da1, a chemically modified form of hGH, whose insulin-like potency is reduced relative to its lipolytic potency. Da1 and hGH were equipotent in promoting lipolysis and had an ED50 of about 3 ng/ml, but hGH was at least 6 times as potent as Da1 in promoting glucose oxidation (ED50 of 65 vs. 400 ng/ml). Scatchard plots of both Da1 and hGH binding data were linear, consistent with a single class of binding sites whose affinity for hGH was about 3.5 times higher for hGH than Da1. hGH and Da1 both produced half-maximal stimulation of glucose oxidation when about 90% of the GH receptors were occupied. In contrast, half-maximal lipolysis was produced by Da1 when 8% of GH receptors were occupied, but 21% occupancy was required for a similar effect of hGH. If a subclass of GH receptors mediates lipolysis, it is likely to comprise 10% or less of the total receptor population.