The sensitivity of hepatic CYP2C gene expression to baseline growth hormone (GH) bioactivity in dwarf rats: effects of GH-binding protein in vivo

Abstract

Hepatic mRNA transcripts for the steroid-metabolizing enzymes cytochrome P4502C11 (male specific) and P4502C12 (female specific) differ in abundance by 10- to 20-fold in male and female rats and are regulated by their different patterns of GH secretion. This sex difference is also found in dwarf rats with low GH secretion, implying that these transcripts may be very sensitive to low level GH exposure. This has now been characterized in normal and dwarf rats. Continuous i.v. infusion of recombinant human (h) GH (0, 3, 12, and 48 micrograms/day) in both dwarf and normal male rats caused a dose-dependent decrease in P4502C11 and an increase in P4502C12, so that the 2C11/2C12 ratio fell from 17.9 +/- 1.3 to 1.5 +/- 1.0 in normal males and from 6.5 +/- 0.9 to 0.4 +/- 0.3 in dwarf males (0 vs. 48 micrograms hGH/day); over this dose range of hGH, body weight gain, total hepatic insulin-like growth factor-I mRNA levels, and plasma GHBP levels were largely unaffected. These effects of hGH were pattern dependent. The 2C11/2C12 ratio in dwarf males was feminized (from 11.9 +/- 1.3 to 0.08 +/- 0.03) by continuous infusion of hGH (36 micrograms/day), whereas a pulsatile infusion (3-min pulses every 3 h) of the same daily hGH dose was much less effective. Neither continuous nor pulsatile hGH affected P4502C11 or P4502C12 transcripts in dwarf females, although pulsatile hGH infusion caused a significant weight gain. To test whether baseline GH levels could be modified by circulating GH-binding protein (GHBP), hGH infusions were given with and without recombinant hGHBP in different patterns. Pulsatile infusions of recombinant hGHBP (42 micrograms/day, i.v.) did not prevent the feminizing effect of continuously infused hGH (36 micrograms/day, sc) in dwarf males (2C11/2C12 ratios were 0.08 +/- 0.01 and 0.09 +/- 0.01 for hGH vs. hGH plus hGHBP, respectively). This suggested that intermittent complex formation with GHBP did not prevent continuous access of hGH to the hepatic GH receptors. Furthermore, pulses of hGH complexed with GHBP significantly reduced the 2C11/2C12 ratio in dwarf males (from 21.5 +/- 3.9 with pulsatile hGH alone to 9.2 +/- 2.5 with pulses of hGH plus hGHBP), indicating that GHBP prolongs the exposure to hGH. Thus, 2C11/2C12 expression is very sensitive to basal GH levels in dwarf rats, and GHBP can alter hepatic gene expression by modifying the pattern of GH exposure.