Mechanism for markedly hyperresponsive insulin-stimulated glucose transport activity in adipose cells from insulin-treated streptozotocin diabetic rats. Evidence for increased glucose transporter intrinsic activity

The effects of insulin therapy in streptozotocin diabetic rats on the glucose transport response to insulin in adipose cells have been examined. At sequential intervals during subcutaneous insulin infusion, isolated cells were prepared and incubated with or without insulin, and 3-O-methylglucose transport was measured. Insulin treatment not only reversed the insulin-resistant glucose transport associated with diabetes, but resulted in a progressive hyperresponsiveness, peaking with a 3-fold overshoot at 7-8 days (12.1 +/- 0.3 versus 3.4 +/- 0.1 fmol/cell/min, mean +/- S.E.) and remaining elevated for more than 3 weeks. During the peak overshoot, glucose transporters in subcellular membrane fractions were assessed by cytochalasin B binding. Insulin therapy restored glucose transporter concentration in the plasma membranes of insulin-stimulated cells from a 40% depleted level previously reported in the diabetic state to approximately 35% greater than control (38 +/- 4 versus 28 +/- 2 pmol/mg of membrane protein). Glucose transporter concentration in the low-density microsomes from basal cells was also restored from an approximately 45% depleted level back to normal (50 +/- 4 versus 50 +/- 6 pmol/mg of membrane protein), whereas total intracellular glucose transporters were further increased due to an approximately 2-fold increase in low-density microsomal membrane protein. However, these increases remained markedly less than the enhancement of insulin-stimulated glucose transport activity in the intact cell. Thus, insulin treatment of diabetic rats produces a marked and sustained hyperresponsive insulin-stimulated glucose transport activity in the adipose cell with little more than a restoration to the non-diabetic control level of glucose transporter translocation. Because this enhanced glucose transport activity occurs through an increase in Vmax, insulin therapy appears to be associated with a marked increase in glucose transporter intrinsic activity.     

Qualitative and quantitative comparison of glucose transport activity and glucose transporter concentration in plasma membranes from basal and insulin-stimulated rat adipose cells.

Conditions are described which allow the isolation of rat adipose-cell plasma membranes retaining a large part of the stimulatory effect of insulin in intact cells. In these membranes, the magnitude of glucose-transport stimulation in response to insulin was compared with the concentration of transporters as measured with the cytochalasin-B-binding assay or by immunoblotting with an antiserum against the human erythrocyte glucose transporter. Further, the substrate- and temperature-dependencies of the basal and insulin-stimulated states were compared. Under carefully controlled homogenization conditions, insulin-treated adipose cells yielded plasma membranes with a glucose transport activity 10-15-fold higher than that in membranes from basal cells. Insulin increased the transport Vmax. (from 1,400 +/- 300 to 15,300 +/- 3,400 pmol/s per mg of protein; means +/- S.E.M.; assayed at 22 degrees C) without any significant change in Km (from 17.8 +/- 4.4 to 18.9 +/- 1.4 nM). Arrhenius plots of plasma-membrane transport exhibited a break at 21 degrees C, with a higher activation energy over the lower temperature range. The activation energy over the higher temperature range was significantly lower in membranes from basal than from insulin-stimulated cells [27.7 +/- 5.0 kJ/mol (6.6 +/- 1.2 kcal/mol) and 45.3 +/- 2.1 kJ/mol (10.8 +/- 0.5 kcal/mol) respectively], giving rise to a larger relative response to insulin when transport was assayed at 37 degrees C as compared with 22 degrees C. The stimulation of transport activity at 22 degrees C was fully accounted for by an increase in the concentration of transporters measured by cytochalasin B binding, if a 5% contamination of plasma membranes with low-density microsomes was assumed. However, this 10-fold stimulation of transport activity contrasted with an only 2-fold increase in transporter immunoreactivity in membranes from insulin-stimulated cells. These data suggest that, in addition to stimulating the translocation of glucose transporters to the plasma membrane, insulin appears to induce a structural or conformational change in the transporter, manifested in an altered activation energy for plasma-membrane transport and possibly in an altered immunoreactivity as assessed by Western blotting.     

Insulin-induced subcellular redistribution of insulin-like growth factor II receptors in the rat adipose cell. Counterregulatory effects of isoproterenol, adenosine, and cAMP analogues

Insulin shifts the steady-state subcellular distribution of insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II) receptors from a large intracellular pool to the plasma membrane in the rat adipose cell (Wardzala, L. J., Simpson, I. A., Rechler, M. M., and Cushman, S. W. (1984) J. Biol. Chem. 259, 8378-8383). In the present study, the counterregulatory effects of adrenergic stimulation, adenosine deaminase, and cAMP on this process were studied. Both isoproterenol (10(-6) M) and adenosine deaminase reduced insulin sensitivity and also rapidly (t1/2 approximately 1.5 min) decreased the effect of a maximal insulin concentration on the number of cell surface IGF-II receptors by 35-50%, and by 70% when added together. The marked reduction in binding was retained in isolated and solubilized plasma membranes. Both isoproterenol and adenosine deaminase alone increased the EC50 for insulin from 0.06 to 0.17 nM and, when combined, to 0.6 nM. N6-Monobutyryl-cAMP and 8-bromo-cAMP were equally potent in reducing IGF-II binding in the absence of insulin and inhibited maximal insulin-stimulated IGF-II binding by 60 and 30%, respectively. However, only the nonhydrolyzable cAMP analogue, N6-monobutyryl-cAMP, reduced the insulin sensitivity (EC50 0.7 nM). An important stimulatory role for Gi (guanine nucleotide-binding regulatory protein that inhibits adenylate cyclase) was indicated by the altered activities of cells from pertussis toxin-treated animals. The results suggest that beta-adrenergic stimulation through a cAMP-dependent mechanism markedly alters the insulin-stimulated redistribution of IGF-II receptors. This effect is additional to the potent antagonistic action of cAMP on insulin's signalling mechanism.     

Characterization of the stimulatory action of insulin on insulin-like growth factor II binding to rat adipose cells. Differences in the mechanism of insulin action on insulin-like growth factor II receptors and glucose transporters

Insulin is known to increase the number of cell surface insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II) receptors in isolated rat adipose cells through a subcellular redistribution mechanism similar to that for the glucose transporter. The effects of insulin on these two processes, therefore, have now been directly compared in the same cell preparations. 1) Insulin increases the steady state number of cell surface IGF-II receptors by 7-13-fold without affecting receptor affinity; however, insulin stimulates glucose transport activity by 25-40-fold. 2) The insulin concentration required for half-maximal stimulation of cell surface IGF-II receptor number is approximately 30% lower than that for the stimulation of glucose transport activity. 3) The half-time for the achievement of insulin's maximal effect at 37 degrees C is much shorter for IGF-II receptor number (approximately 0.8 min) than for glucose transport activity (approximately 2.6 min). 4) Reversal of insulin's action at 37 degrees C occurs more rapidly for cell surface IGF-II receptors (t1/2 congruent to 2.9 min) than for glucose transport activity (t1/2 congruent to 4.9 min). 5) When the relative subcellular distribution of IGF-II receptors is examined in basal cells, less than 10% of the receptors are localized to the plasma membrane fraction indicating that most of the receptors, like glucose transporters, are localized to an intracellular compartment. However, in response to insulin, the number of plasma membrane IGF-II receptors increases only approximately 1.4-fold while the number of glucose transporters increases approximately 4.5-fold. Thus, while the stimulatory actions of insulin on cell surface IGF-II receptors and glucose transport activity are qualitatively similar, marked quantitative differences suggest that the subcellular cycling of these two integral membrane proteins occurs by distinct processes.     

Ketomethylureas. A new class of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors

The design rationale for a new series of tripeptide derived angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, which we term "ketomethylureas", is described. Analogs of tripeptide substrates (i.e. N-benzoyl-Phe-Ala-Pro) in which the nitrogen atom of the scissile amide bond and the adjacent asymmetric carbon atom of the penultimate amino acid residue are formally transposed give rise to this novel class of inhibitors. The most potent ketomethylureas inhibit ACE with I50 values in the nM range.     

Production of the Milk Agent in Cultures of Mouse Mammary Carcinoma

Thin sections of tissue cultures grown from tumors of the RIII high-breast-cancer strain mice were studied in the electron microscope. These tissues contain an abundance of particles whose morphology is consistent with biophysical measurement of the milk agent. These particles, found only extracellularly in our cultures, are formed at the cell membrane. The process of formation, as reconstructed from sections, appears to include a thickening and protrusion of the cell membrane which then evolves gradually into a dense sphere and separates from the cell in much the same manner as does influenza virus. The contents of the newly formed body are later rearranged to form a nucleoid within a membranous sac.     

The lepidopteran mitochondrial control region: structure and evolution

For several species of lepidoptera, most of the approximately 350-bp mitochondrial control-region sequences were determined. Six of these species are in one genus, Jalmenus; are closely related; and are believed to have undergone recent rapid speciation. Recent speciation was supported by the observation of low interspecific sequence divergence. Thus, no useful phylogeny could be constructed for the genus. Despite a surprising conservation of control-region length, there was little conservation of primary sequences either among the three lepidopteran genera or between lepidoptera and Drosophila. Analysis of secondary structure indicated only one possible feature in common--inferred stem loops with higher-than-random folding energies-- although the positions of the structures in different species were unrelated to regions of primary sequence similarity. We suggest that the conserved, short length of control regions is related to the observed lack of heteroplasmy in lepidopteran mitochondrial genomes. In addition, determination of flanking sequences for one Jalmenus species indicated (i) only weak support for the available model of insect 12S rRNA structure and (ii) that tRNA translocation is a frequent event in the evolution of insect mitochondrial genomes.      

Comparison of convective and diffusive absorption of nutrients by growing roots

With the roots assumed growing at an exponential rate the effects of the diffusive and convective components of flux and nutrient uptake are examined in a non-dimensional setting. Two cases considered are root-root on no root-root competition. Several examples are presented to illustrate the general effects of interroot competition.Contribution from the Purdue Agric. Exp. Stn., West Lafayette, IN, 47907. Journal Paper Number7656.