Hyperinsulinemia plays a major role in the pathogenesis of vascular disease. Restenosis occurs at an accelerated rate in hyperinsulinemia and is dependent on increased vascular smooth muscle cell movement from media to neointima. PDGF plays a critical role in mediating neointima formation in models of vascular injury. We have reported that PDGF increases the levels of protein tyrosine phosphatase PTP1B and that PTP1B suppresses PDGF-induced motility in cultured cells and that it attenuates neointima formation in injured carotid arteries. Others have reported that insulin enhances the mitogenic and motogenic effects of PDGF in cultured smooth muscle cells and that hyperinsulinemia promotes vascular remodeling. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that insulin amplifies PDGF-induced cell motility by suppressing the expression and function of PTP1B. We found that chronic but not acute treatment of cells with insulin enhances PDGF-induced motility in differentiated cultured primary rat aortic smooth muscle cells and that it suppresses PDGF-induced upregulation of PTP1B protein. Moreover, insulin suppresses PDGF-induced upregulation of PTP1B mRNA levels, PTP1B enzyme activity and the binding of PTP1B to the PDGF receptor and it enhances PDGF-induced PDGF receptor phosphotyrosylation. Treatment with insulin induces time-dependent upregulation of PI 3 kinase delta, and activation of Akt, an enzyme downstream of PI 3 kinase. Finally, inhibition of PI 3 kinase activity, or its function, by pharmacological or genetic means, rescues PTP1B activity in insulin-treated cells. These observations uncover novel mechanisms that explain how insulin amplifies the motogenic capacity of the pivotal growth factor PDGF.