Cadmium is well known as a toxic metal and has insulin mimicking effects in rat adipose tissue. This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of CdCl₂ on glucose transport and its mechanism in 3T3 - L1 adipocytes. CdCl₂ exhibits respectively 2.2 and 2.8 fold increases in the 2-deoxyglucose uptake when exposed to 10 and 25 μM of CdCl₂ for 12 hr. To investigate the stimulating mechanism of glucose transport induced by CdCl₂. Wortmannin and PD98059 were used respectively as PI3K inhibitor and MAPK inhibitor, which did not affect 2-DOG uptake. This results suggest that induced 2-deoxy-(l-3H)-D-glucose (2-DOG) uptake by CdCl₂ may not be concerned with the insulin signalling pathway. Whereas nifedipine, a calcium channel blocker inhibited the 2- DOG uptake stimulated by CdCl₂. In addition, we also measured the increased production of Reactive oxygen substances (ROS) and glutathione (GSH) level in 3T3-L1 adipocytes to investigate correlation between the glucose uptake and increased production of ROS with H2DCFDA. CdCl₂ increased production of ROS. Induced 2-DOG uptake and increased production of ROS by CdCl₂ were decreased by N-acetylcystein (NAC). And L-buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) a potent inhibitor of γ-GCS, decreased of 2-DOG uptake. Also NAC and BSO changed the cellular GSH level, but GSH/GSSG ratio remained unchanged at 10, 25 μM of CdCl₂.