The capacitative Ca 2؉ entry pathway in J774 macrophages is rapidly inhibited by the amino sugar glucosamine. This pathway is also inhibited by treatments such as 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2dGlc) or glucose deprivation that inhibit glycolysis and lead to significant decreases in cellular ATP and other trinucleotides. We sought to determine whether glucosamine's effect on capacitative Ca 2؉ entry was also due to ATP depletion, as has been suggested recently for its link to insulin resistance. In contrast to brief treatments with 2dGlc, there was no significant decrease in ATP following exposure to glucosamine. In addition, the 2dGlc-mediated inhibition of capacitative Ca 2؉ influx was reversed by staurosporine, a microbial alkaloid that inhibits a broad range of protein kinases. Staurosporine was also able to reverse the inhibition of capacitative Ca 2؉ entry seen following other treatments that decreased cellular ATP levels, including cytochalasin B and iodoacetic acid. Other inhibitors of protein kinase C, including bisindolylmaleimide, K252a, H-7, and calphostin C, were unable to mimic this effect of staurosporine. However, the inhibition of capacitative Ca 2؉ influx in the presence of glucosamine was not reversed by staurosporine. These data indicate that the inhibitory action on capacitative Ca 2؉ entry of glucosamine is distinct from that caused by ATP depletion.The amino sugar glucosamine has been shown to have a variety of effects on cell and animal physiology. Numerous reports dating from over 40 years ago (1, 2) document that dietary glucosamine is selectively toxic to some experimentally induced tumors in rodents. In addition, Marshall et al. (3) determined that exogenous glucosamine induced insulin resistance in cultured adipocytes in a manner similar to that caused by hyperglycemia but at a 40-fold lower concentration than that required for glucose. They also showed that inhibition of glucose flux through the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway prevented hyperglycemia-induced insulin resistance from developing. These results have been extended to show that insulin resistance develops in animals infused with glucosamine (4, 5) or in cells (6) and animals (7) that overexpress the rate-limiting enzyme in the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway, glutamine: fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase. Glucosamine treatment has also been shown to elicit the expression of transform-