Effect of insulin and growth hormone on the synthesis of radiolabelled proteoglycans from cultured human arterial smooth-muscle cells.

The present study focuses on the pathogenesis of increased frequency of large-vessel disease in diabetes. The diabetic arterial wall displays characteristic alterations of the extracellular matrix secreted by arterial smooth-muscle cells. The effects of insulin and growth hormone on the synthesis of sulphate-labelled proteoglycans and heparan sulphate proteoglycan were studied. Proteoglycans and heparan sulphate proteoglycan were obtained from the medium and the cell layer of cultured human arterial smooth-muscle cells grown in 5% human serum. Heparan sulphate proteoglycan was quantified using ethanol precipitation combined with specific enzyme degradation. Addition of insulin (0.01, 0.05 and 0.10 mU/ml) induced a significant accumulation of 35S-labelled proteoglycans in the cell layer (2p < 0.005 and 2p < 0.001). The relative amount of cell-associated heparan sulphate proteoglycan increased during insulin stimulation (2p < 0.05). Growth hormone stimulation (5.0 and 10.0 ng/ml) caused a significant decrease in the ratio between heparan sulphate proteoglycan and proteoglycan in the cell layer (2p < 0.02 and 2p < 0.01), whereas the distribution of proteoglycans between the cell layer and the medium was unaltered.