1. The pharmacological features of rat white adipocyte beta-adrenoceptor subtypes were investigated by saturation and beta-agonist competition studies with [3H]-CGP 12177 and by lipolysis induced by beta-agonists as well as their inhibition by CGP 20712A (selective beta 1-antagonist) and ICI 118551 (selective beta 2-antagonist) in an attempt to establish a relationship between the functionality and binding capacity of beta-adrenoceptor subtypes. 2. Two populations of binding sites were identified on adipocyte membranes, one with high affinity (0.22 +/- 0.07 nM) and the other with low affinity (23 +/- 7 nM). The low affinity binding sites constituted 90% of the total binding sites. 3. The competition curves, with 15 nM [3H]-CGP 12177, for the beta-agonists, isoprenaline (Iso), noradrenaline (NA) and adrenaline (Ad), and the selective beta 3-agonist, BRL 37344 (BRL), were clearly biphasic (P < 0.001). The rank orders of agonist potency (pKi) in competing for [3H]-CGP 12177 high affinity and low affinity binding sites, respectively, were Iso (9.28 +/- 0.24) > NA (8.90 +/- 0.12) > Ad (8.65 +/- 0.12) > > BRL (4.53 +/- 0.17) and BRL (7.38 +/- 0.19) > > Iso (2.96 +/- 0.26) > or = NA (2.80 +/- 0.17) > Ad (2.10 +/- 0.11) indicating the expression of beta 1- and beta 3-adrenoceptor subtypes on rat white adipocytes, respectively. Inversely, competition studies with the selective beta 1-agonist, xamoterol (Xam), provided evidence for a single homogeneous population of binding sites with low density (81 +/- 9 fmol mg-1) and high pKi value (7.23 +/- 0.26) confirming the presence of beta 1-adrenoceptors. 4. To assess a possible contribution of the beta 2-subtype, procaterol (Proc), a selective beta 2-agonist, was used to compete with 2 nM [3H]-CGP 12177. A single low affinity (4.61 +/- 0.07) population of binding sites was identified. The density of these sites (71 +/- 12 fmol mg-1) was similar to the one obtained with Xam, suggesting that Proc displaced [3H]-CGP 12177 from the beta 1-subtype. 5. The functional potency (pD2) order with BRL (9.07 +/- 0.20) and catecholamines (Iso: 7.26 +/- 0.06, NA: 6.89 +/- 0.02 and Ad: 6.32 +/- 0.07) was the same as that found for the low affinity binding sites in competition studies. Xam induced lipolysis with greater potency than dobutamine (Dob), 6.31 +/- 0.06 and 5.66 +/- 0.10, respectively. Proc stimulated lipolysis with a low potency (5.59 +/- 0.21). 6. The lipolytic response to 0.001 microM BRL was inhibited by both, selective beta 1- and beta 2-antagonist, in a monophasic manner with low potencies (CGP 20712A pKi: < 4.5 and ICI 118551 pKi: 5.57 +/- 0.13). Similar monophasic profiles were obtained for inhibition of Xam- and Dob-induced lipolysis. In this case, CGP 20712A was more potent (> 10 times) than ICI 118551. The monophasic inhibition was also observed with ICI 118551 in the presence of 0.05 microM Iso or 0.13 microM NA. In contrast, two populations of sites were identified with CGP 20712A in the presence of Iso as well as NA. The pKi values for the first sites were 8.41 +/- 0.09 and 8.58 +/- 0.17, respectively, and for the second population of sites 4.73 +/- 0.22 and 4.27 +/- 0.27, respectively. The proportion of the first sites was low: 19 +/- 4 and 22 +/- 5%, respectively. Biphasic curves were obtained with both antagonists using 2.5 microM Proc (CGP 20712A: pKi1: 8.17 +/- 0.08, site1: 23 +/- 6%, pKi2: 4.77 +/- 0.14; ICI 118551: pKi1: 7.78 +/- 0.03, site1: 37 +/- 2%, pKi2: 5.35 +/- 0.25). 7. Our results show that the radioligand [3H]-CGP 12177 allows the characterization of beta 1- and beta 3-adrenoceptor subtypes on rat white adipocytes. Lipolysis is highly dependent on beta 1- and beta 3-adrenoceptors. Finally, binding and functional studies confirm that lipolysis is mainly driven by the beta 3-subtype.