The novel insulin receptor substrate protein APS is highly expressed in insulin-sensitive tissues and plays an important role in insulin-mediated glucose uptake and GLUT4 translocation via the Cbl/CAP pathway. Tyrosine phosphorylation of APS leads to recruitment of c-Cbl and Crk, while overexpression of APS mutant inhibits GLUT4 translocation in response to insulin, but the regulation of APS expression in skeletal muscle has not been previously reported. L6 myoblasts were differentiated in 2% FBS and serum starved for 24h prior to stimulation for 24h with either insulin 1 microM (n=6), rosiglitazone 10 microM (n=6), resistin 500 nM (n=6) or the MAP kinase inhibitor PD098059 50 microM (n=6) for 30 min, followed by insulin 1 microM for 24h. Semi-quantitative real-time RT-PCR was used to determine the expression of APS mRNA relative to the control gene TF2D. APS expression was markedly upregulated by myoblast differentiation (0.55+/-0.08 versus 1.14+/-0.08, p=0.001), and this effect was augmented by addition of rosiglitazone 10 microM for 24h to the differentiated myotubes (1.50+/-0.09, p=0.025). Insulin caused a 3.1-fold decrease in APS mRNA expression (0.37+/-0.01 versus 1.14+/-0.08, p=0.001), an effect that was attenuated by the MAP kinase inhibitor PD098059 (0.80+/-0.03, p=0.001). Exposure to resistin produced a modest decrease (1.4-fold) in myotube expression of APS (0.8+/-0.09, p=0.025). In conclusion, this is the first study to show that exposure to insulin markedly reduces the expression of APS in skeletal muscle via a MAP kinase dependent pathway, whereas myocyte differentiation and rosiglitazone increase APS expression. Changes in APS expression may be important in the aetiology and therapeutic reversal of insulin resistance in skeletal muscle.