In the present study, we have investigated dexamethasone and insulin regulation of the expression of adipose-specific mRNA, namely, glycerophosphate dehydrogenase (G3PDH) and adipsin, at different stages of differentiation. During adipose conversion, insulin promotes an accumulation of G3PDH mRNA which is linked to cell differentiation; in fully differentiated cells, insulin is not required to maintain G3PDH gene expression. Differentiating cells in serum deprived medium already exhibit, at day 1, a maximal amount of mRNA encoding for adipsin, which is tenfold decreased by 10 nM of insulin; insulin also exerts a negative effect on the abundance of adipsin mRNA in mature cells. This result indicates that adipsin appears to be a very early marker of adipose conversion, the gene expression of which is downregulated by the presence of insulin. Dexamethasone (DEX) decreases the G3PDH message at all stages of adipose conversion, while it promotes the accumulation of adipsin mRNA mainly in differentiating cells. In DEX-treated adipocytes, the transcription efficiency of the G3PDH gene is not altered, and reduction to 50% of the message is due essentially to an approximately twofold decrease in its half-life.