Binding of [125I]insulin to specific receptors and stimulation of nucleotide incorporation in cells cultured from rat brain

Abstract

The occurrence of insulin receptors and biological responses to insulin has been investigated in trypsin-dissociated fetal rat brain cells maintained in culture for 8 days. Binding of [125I]insulin to brain cells in culture was time- and pH-dependent and 85--90% specific. Porcine insulin competed for [125I]insulin binding in a dose-dependent manner. Unrelated polypeptides, including angiotensin II, glucagon, bovine growth hormone, and bovine prolactin did not compete for [125I]insulin binding. The half-life of [125I]insulin dissociation from receptors at 24 degrees C was 15 min and a plot of In[B/Bo] vs time suggested two dissociated rate constants of 2.7 X 10(-4) sec-1 and 5.0 X 10(-5) sec-1. Scatchard analysis of the binding data gave a curvilinear plot which may indicate negative cooperativity or the occurrence of both high affinity (Ka = 2 X 10(11) M-1) and low affinity (Ka = 4 X 10(10) M-1) sites. Of the estimated total of 4.9 X 10(4) binding sites per cell, 28--30% appear to be high affinity sites. Incubation of cultures with insulin caused a time- and dose-dependent stimulation of [3H]thymidine and [3H]uridine incorporation into TCA-precipitable material. Maximum stimulation of thymidine incorporation (2--5-fold) occurred 11 h after incubation with 167 nM insulin. The same concentration of insulin caused a 2.2-fold increase in [3H]uridine incorporation in 2 h. These results indicate that cells cultured from rat brain contain specific insulin receptors capable of mediating effects of insulin on macromolecular synthesis in the central nervous system.