Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) have been shown to be both insulin resistant and hyperinsulinemic after oral glucose administration or infusion of exogenous insulin during an insulin suppression test. To determine if this hyperinsulinemia may be due to decreased removal of insulin, the metabolic clearance (k) of insulin was measured in isolated perfused liver, kidney, and hindlimb skeletal muscle from SHR and Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) control rats. The data indicate that the k for insulin removal by liver was similar in SHR and WKY rats, averaging 287 +/- 18 and 271 +/- 10 microliters.min-1.g-1 liver, respectively. In contrast, the k for insulin removal by hindlimbs from SHR was decreased 37% (P less than 0.001) compared with WKY rats (8.6 +/- 0.5 vs. 13.7 +/- 0.7 microliters.min-1.g-1 muscle), and this decrease was not accompanied by decreased binding of insulin to its receptor in plantaris muscle. Although the removal of insulin by glomerular filtration was similar in SHR and WKY rats (653 +/- 64 microliters/min vs. 665 +/- 90 microliters.min-1.kidney-1), total insulin removal by kidney was significantly lower (P less than 0.05) in SHR (710 +/- 78 microliters/min) compared with WKY rats (962 +/- 67 microliters/min), due to decreased peritubular clearance of insulin in SHR (56 +/- 73 vs. 297 +/- 59 microliters/min, P less than 0.05). These findings suggest that the decreased clearance of insulin in SHR rats was possibly not due to impaired hepatic removal of insulin but rather to decreased removal by skeletal muscle and kidneys.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)