Down regulation of opiate receptors on 108CC15 hybrid cells is inhibited by receptor occupancy.

This study reports on the molecular mechanism of delta-opiate receptor down regulation on 108CC15 neuroblastoma X glioma hybrid cells. The down regulation induced by culture in the presence of 10(-5) M 2-D-Ala, 5-D-Leu-enkephalin (DADLE) can be prevented by continued exposure to ligand concentrations greater than 4 nM, the Kd of the binding site. Below this concentration, down regulation is a rapid and irreversible process. It is deduced that the internalization process in this cell line is initiated when unoccupied receptor dimers are present. These results have important implications for down regulation studies using cultured cell lines and studies of receptor regulation in vivo after chronic treatment with neuroactive drugs.