Whereas insulin does not stimulate hexose transport in polymorphonuclear leukocytes, we recently reported that C5a causes the leukocytes to take up 243Hldeoxy-glucose. We now find that fMet-Leu-Phe, in a concentrationrelated manner with an ECso (concentration producing 50% of stimulatory activity) of 1.2 nM, causes a 5.5-fold stimulation of deoxyglucose uptake. Moreover, arachidonic acid (5,8,11, acid) similarly stimulated deoxyglucose uptake with an EC50 of 0.6 gM. Stimulation by arachidonic acid exhibited structural specificity; five structural analogues of arachidonic acid, including arachidonyl alcohol, 8,11,14-eicosatrienoic acid, 11,14,17-eicosatrienoic acid, 5,8,11,14- Substances originally defined as stimulating chemotaxis of human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL), such as C5a and the synthetic oligopeptide N-formylmethionylleucylphenylalanine (fMet-Leu-Phe), interact with specific membrane receptors (1-3) that induce multifunctional cellular responses. In addition to stimulating motility, such chemotactic factors also stimulate adhesiveness (4, 5), aggregation (5-7), degranulation (3,8), and oxidative metabolism (9-12) of PMNL. PMNL require energy derived from glucose for each of these functions. It would be reasonable if chemotactic substances interacted with hexose transport systems of the PMNL membrane to facilitate the availability of glucose. We recently reported that C5a stimulated the uptake of 2-[3H]deoxyglucose (dGlc) (13). Similar concentrations of C5a were required to cause stimulation of chemotaxis and dGlc uptake. Whereas insulin had no effect on dGlc transport in PMNL, the 3-to 7-fold increase in uptake induced by C5a was comparable to that produced by insulin in human adipose tissue (14).Stimulation of membrane receptors by chemotactic factors produces a number of membrane responses which have been suggested as a sequence culminating in stimulation of cellular functions (15-17). These include (i) increase in levels of free calcium by influx of extracellular Ca2+ and (or) mobilization of intracellular or membrane-bound Ca2+ (18-22), (ii) activation of calcium-dependent phospholipase A2 (23), (iM) release of arachidonic acid from membrane phospholipids (24), and (iv) metabolism of arachidonic acid with generation of bioactive products (16,(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34), some of which are reincorporated into the membrane (30, 31) possibly causing increased membrane fluidity. Whether these events are involved in the stimulation of hexose transport is unknown.The synthetic oligopeptide fMet-Leu-Phe has been extensively used as an analogue of bacterical chemotactic factors and has proven invaluable as a probe for elucidating multifunctional effects and mechanisms of actions of chemotactic factors of PMNL. The present studies examined the ability of fMetLeu-Phe or arachidonic acid to stimulate dGlc uptake by PMNL, the effects of inhibitors of the cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase pathways of arachidonic acid metabolism, and the nature of the hexose transport system. METHODS P...