Response of diabetic basement membrane--producing cells to glucose and insulin.

The effect of insulin and glucose on the synthesis of basement membrane components was studied in organ cultures of a basement membrane-producing tumor grown in diabetic and normal mice. Tumor tissue grown in diabetic mice produced more protein and basement membrane-specific proteoglycan in response to insulin than tissue grown in normal mice. Addition of high levels of glucose to the culture medium did not alter insulin-stimulated protein synthesis by diabetic or normal tissue but dampened insulin-stimulated production of proteoglycan. These data suggest that basement membrane-producing cells in diabetic hosts may be hypersensitive to insulin and that stimulation of protein production by insulin may play some role in the in situ hypertrophy of basement membranes.