Topology of glutathione-insulin transhydrogenase in rat liver microsomes

Insulin internalization and other signaling pathways in the pleiotropic effects of insulin

Insulin is the major anabolic hormone in humans and affects multiple cellular processes. Insulin rapidly regulates short-term effects on carbohydrate, lipid, and protein metabolism and is also a potent growth factor controlling cell proliferation and differentiation. The metabolic and growth-related effects require insulin binding to its receptor and receptor phosphorylation. Evidence suggests these events result in subsequent substrate phosphorylation and activation of multiple signaling pathways involving Src homology domain-containing proteins and the internalization of the insulin:receptor complex. The role of insulin internalization in insulin action is largely speculative. For more than two decades, extensive investigation has been carried out by numerous laboratories of the mechanisms by which insulin causes its pleiotropic responses and the cellular processing of insulin receptors. This chapter reviews our current knowledge of the phosphorylation signaling pathways activated by insulin and presents evidence that substrates other than insulin receptor substrate-1 are involved in insulin's regulation of immediate-early gene expression. We also review the mechanisms involved in insulin internalization and present evidence that internalization may play a key role in insulin action through both signal transduction processes and translocation of insulin to the cell cytoplasm and nucleus.

The occurrence of glutathione-insulin transhydrogenase (protein-disulfide interchange enzyme) in the lens

Glutathione-insulin transhydrogenase (GIT, thiol:protein-disulfide isomerase/oxidoreductase, E.C. 5.3.4.1/1.8.4.2) catalyzes via sulfhydryldisulfide interchange, the scission as well as formation of disulfide bonds in many diverse proteins. Using insulin as a substrate, the lens epithelial layer of cows, rats and rabbits was found to contain GIT activity. The enzyme's activity is activated by GSH and inhibited by N-ethylmaleimide. Subcellular distribution of bovine lens epithelial homogenates showed that the majority of GIT activity is located in the insoluble fraction (10,000 g pellet) and in the high molecular weight fraction (60,000 g pellet). Lens epithelial extracts were subjected to SDS-PAGE followed by Western blot, and probed with a polyclonal antibody to rat liver GIT, or with either of two monoclonal antibodies directed against different epitopes of the enzyme. Lens epithelium was found to contain two forms of GIT, one with the same molecular weight as the purified enzyme (Mr 56Kd), and a second having an Mr of 67Kd. Immunoblots using polyclonal antibodies revealed an additional major immunoreactive band of 32Kd in the cow lens epithelial layer as well as in the isolated cortical and nuclear portions. Rat lenses showed no immunoreactive 32Kd band. Using a bovine cortical/nuclear fraction the 32Kd reactivity was found to be associated with the beta H-crystallin fraction, but the extract failed to show GIT activity with the insulin substrate. This suggests that beta H-crystallin may share a common epitope with GIT.

Characterization of a cDNA for human glutathione-insulin transhydrogenase (protein-disulfide isomerase/oxidoreductase)

A human liver cDNA expression library in lambda-phage gt11 was screened with monoclonal antibodies to rat liver protein-disulfide isomerase/oxidoreductase (EC 5.3.4.1/1.8.4.2), also known as glutathione-insulin transhydrogenase (GIT). The nucleotide sequence of the largest cDNA insert (hgit-1) was determined. It contained approx. 1500 basepairs, representing an estimated 65% of the glutathione-insulin transhydrogenase message. The amino-acid sequence deduced from this cDNA insert contains a 7-amino-acid long polypeptide determined by sequencing the active-site fragment isolated from the rat GIT protein. A comparison of the nucleotide sequence of hgit-1 and a previously reported nucleotide sequence of rat glutathione-insulin transhydrogenase cDNA shows that the human hgit-1 clone corresponds to the middle of the transhydrogenase message at amino-acid residue number 275 of the rat protein, and codes for 206 amino-acid residues, including one of the two active-site regions of glutathione-insulin transhydrogenase, a stop codon (TAA), a long 3'-noncoding region of over 800 bases, a polyadenylation signal (AATAA), and a 29 base poly(A) tail. There exists high homology between the human and rat enzymes (94% in the overall amino-acid sequence, with 100% in the active site region and 81% in the nucleotide sequence within the coding portion of hgit-1). As with the rat enzyme, the human enzyme shows some identity with another dithiol-disulfide-exchange protein, Escherichia coli thioredoxin. Like rat cDNA, the human hgit-1 cDNA hybridized to rat mRNA of 2500 bases on a Northern blot. The relative quantitative abundance of GIT mRNA in nine rat tissues studied using hgit-1 as a hybridization probe was found to be in the same order as previously found with the rat cDNA. Thus, the above studies indicate that glutathione-insulin transhydrogenase is a highly conserved protein and that the human hgit-1 cDNA is suitable for use as a probe for further studies on gene regulation of this enzyme.

Stabilization of insulin receptor subunit structure by glutathione-insulin transhydrogenase

A partially purified insulin receptor preparation from rat liver was incubated at 37 degrees C with and without the protein-disulfide interchange enzyme, glutathione-insulin transhydrogenase (thiol: protein-disulfide oxidoreductase/isomerase, EC 1.8.4.2/5.3.4.1). Insulin-binding activity was then assessed by crosslinking receptor-125I-insulin complexes and subjecting them to electrophoresis on SDS-polyacrylamide gels in the absence and presence of reductant followed by autoradiography. Prior incubation of the receptor at 37 degrees C in the absence of the enzyme markedly decreased the subsequent binding of 125I-insulin to the holoreceptor (Mr 350 000) and to its subunits (Mr 180 000 and 130 000), while addition of the enzyme to the preincubation medium served to substantially prevent this decrease. The loss in binding at 37 degrees C was not restored by subsequent addition of the enzyme, nor was the loss prevented by any of the several known inhibitors of proteolysis. The apparent stabilization of receptor by transhydrogenase, as evidenced by the increase in binding above control levels, was proportional to both the enzyme concentration and the duration of incubation. These effects seem to be specific for transhydrogenase, since several other disulfide-containing proteins were found to be ineffective. These data suggest that the stabilization of the subunit structure of the insulin receptor at physiological temperatures may take place via a disulfide interchange reaction catalyzed by glutathione-insulin transhydrogenase.

The latency of rat liver microsomal protein disulphide-isomerase

Protein disulphide-isomerase (PDI) activity was not detectable in freshly prepared rat liver microsomes (microsomal fraction), but became detectable after treatments that damage membrane integrity, e.g. sonication, detergent treatment or freezing and thawing. Maximum activity was detectable after sonication. Identical latency was observed in microsomes prepared by gel filtration and in those prepared by high-speed centrifugation. PDI activity was latent in all particulate subcellular fractions, but not latent in the high-speed supernatant. When all fractions were sonicated to expose total PDI activity, PDI was found at highest specific activity in the microsomal fraction and co-distributed with marker enzymes of the endoplasmic reticulum. Washing of microsomes under various conditions that removed peripheral proteins and, in some cases, bound ribosomes did not remove significant quantities of PDI, nor did it affect the latency of PDI activity. Treatment of microsomes with proteinases, under conditions where the permeability barrier of the microsomal vesicles was maintained intact, did not inactivate PDI significantly or affect its latency. PDI was very readily solubilized from microsomal vesicles by low concentrations of detergents, which removed only a fraction of the total microsomal protein. In all these respects, PDI resembled nucleoside diphosphatase, a marker peripheral protein of the luminal surface of the endoplasmic reticulum, and differed from NADPH: cytochrome c reductase, a marker integral protein exposed at the cytoplasmic surface of the membrane. The data are compatible with a model in which PDI is loosely associated with the luminal surface of the endoplasmic reticulum, a location consistent with the proposed physiological role of the enzyme as catalyst of formation of native disulphide bonds in nascent and newly synthesized secretory proteins.

Purification and characterization of a rat liver cytosol neutral thiol peptidase that degrades glucagon, insulin, and isolated insulin A and B chains

A thiol peptidase that catalyzes at near neutral pH the hydrolysis of insulin, the isolated A and B chains of insulin, and glucagon was purified from rat liver cytosol by fractionation on Sephadex G-200, Affi-Gel Blue, and Spherogel TSK-G 3000 SW. The purified enzyme showed a single component by chromatography on a Spherogel TSK column and by gel filtration on a Sephadex G-200 column. The native enzyme has a molecular weight of approximately 180,000 and consists of two subunits having pI's of 5.9 and 6.3. Studies on its substrate specificity showed that the purified enzyme degrades glucagon, insulin, insulin B chain, and insulin A chain, but it does not degrade proinsulin, ACTH, or denatured hemoglobin. Kinetic analyses were performed on three substrates. The Km values were: 34 nM for insulin, 276 nM for insulin B chain, and 3.5 microM for glucagon. The kcat and Vm/Km values were glucagon greater than B chain greater than insulin. Thus, the enzyme has the highest affinity/lowest efficiency for insulin, an intermediate affinity/intermediate efficiency for B chain of insulin and the lowest affinity/highest efficiency for glucagon. The effect of several potential activators and inhibitors on the enzyme's activity was investigated. The enzyme activity was markedly inhibited by N-ethylmaleimide, p-chloromercuribenzoic acid, iodoacetamide, and Np-tosyl-L-phenylalanine chloromethyl ketone (TPCK), and was partially inhibited by dithiothreitol, by the chelating agents EDTA and EGTA, and by phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (PMSF). Bacitracin inhibited the activity of the enzyme, but the protease inhibitors aprotinin, leupeptin, pepstatin, and phosphoramidon had little or no effect. Reduced glutathione, iodoacetate, and N alpha,p-tosyl-L-lysine chloromethyl ketone (TLCK) also had little or no effect on the enzyme activity.

Nonlatent and latent hepatic glutathione-insulin transhydrogenase activity during perinatal development and liver regeneration in rats and in rat placenta

We have studied glutathione-insulin transhydrogenase (GIT) activity in differentiating rat liver during parturition and neonatal growth and during compensatory liver growth. Parturition is characterized by a rapid but transient increase in total (i.e., nonlatent plus latent) hepatic GIT activity resulting from changes in the quantity (Vm) of the enzyme while neonatal growth is characterized by an increase in the nonlatent (active) form which persists until just prior to weaning. During liver regeneration following partial hepatectomy, GIT activity/mg protein is lowest after 12 h of regeneration and then progressively increases exceeding the control levels after 72 h of regeneration. Placenta from near-term rats contain a significant concentration of GIT which is immunologically similar to hepatic GIT.