Insulin and phorbol myristic acetate induce ornithine decarboxylase in Reuber H35 rat hepatoma cells by different mechanisms.

Reuber H35 rat hepatoma cells respond to insulin or to tumor promoting phorbol esters with an increase in ornithine decarboxylase enzyme activity. This occurs in a time- and dose-dependent manner with both types of agonist. We report here that the increase in ornithine decarboxylase activity with optimal concentrations of both agonists is additive. Furthermore, the initial increase is dependent on continued RNA and protein synthesis. We also find that both of these agonists cause an increase in mRNA coding for ornithine decarboxylase in a time- and dose-dependent manner which suggests that the increase in enzyme activity can be accounted for by the increase in transcript levels. The difference in the time course of induction by the agonists, the additivity of induction by the two agonists, the differential sensitivity of induction to cycloheximide and RNA synthesis inhibitors, and the observation that phorbol myristic acetate causes a further increase in ornithine decarboxylase activity and transcript levels in cells already maximally induced by insulin suggest that these two agonists act through separate mechanisms.