Glucocorticoids regulate insulin binding in a rat glial cell line.

We have examined insulin receptor regulation by glucocorticoids in the C6 rat glioma cell line. Dexamethasone decreased insulin binding to intact cell monolayers in a dose and time-dependent fashion. The effect is maximal between 48 and 72 h with 50 nM dexamethasone that decreased binding by 40-60%. The natural steroid corticosterone produced a similar effect although it was less potent, and the antiglucocorticoid 17 alpha-methyltestosterone was ineffective in lowering the receptor and partially antagonized the effect of dexamethasone. Total number of binding sites was decreased by glucocorticoids, and when analyzed with a two-site model a 3-fold increase in the dissociation constant (Kd) of the low affinity site was also observed. In the absence of protein synthesis the receptor accumulates at the cell surface, since cycloheximide produced a large increase of insulin binding. Cycloheximide totally blocked the effect of dexamethasone when both compounds were added together to the cells suggesting that protein synthesis is necessary for the effect of the glucocorticoid. By contrast, in cells pretreated with dexamethasone, cycloheximide was unable to produce an increase in cell surface receptor, showing that glucocorticoids probably deplete not only membrane receptor but also total cellular receptor.