ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the detailed molecular events triggered by insulin stimulus, which ultimately render glucose transportation into the cell. Insulin, a peptide hormone with a molecular weight of 5808 Da, first binds with insulin receptors on the surface of a cell. The signaling is processed by a network of interactions among many molecules, collectively known as the PI3K-AKT-TOR pathway. The pathway has several key regulators, including PI3K, AKT, and TOR, which are described in the following sections. It should be stressed that the pathway actually functions as a whole and it is difficult to introduce one molecule without mentioning the other two. Therefore, each of the three sections actually describes one aspect of the pathway functioning. In the last section, a backbone structure is extracted from the pathway, as a summary of this chapter.
