Effect of down-regulation of insulin receptors on receptor-antibody binding

The concept of a changing receptor concentration: implications for the theory of drug action

Drugs are considered to produce their effects on biological tissues either by altering some physical property of cells or by interacting with specific cellular components, called receptors. Most drugs and endogenous neurotransmitters act on highly selective receptors located on the outer surface membrane of cells. These receptors were believed, until recently, to be stationary on the cell surface and to be present in unvarying numbers. Consequently, most early theorists modeled the drug-receptor interaction on the basis of stationary and static receptor molecules. The substantial advances in our understanding of drug action based on these models have partly justified this view. However, recent electron microscopic studies have revealed the presence of structures, including "coated" pits and vesicles, that appear to provide a mechanism by which cell surface receptors might be internalized in a process of endocytosis. The precise intracellular fate of these internalized receptors is unknown, but based on present understanding, it seems reasonable to believe that some are destroyed intracellularly whereas others are recycled to the cell surface. The importance of such processes to pharmacologic theory is a new awareness of a cellular pathway that is capable of internalizing drugs, receptors, or both. The implications of such a process to the theory of drug action extends to some unexplained drug phenomena such as down regulation, drug tolerance, tachyphyllaxis, and partial agonism. We present herein the theoretical framework for a model of drug action that incorporates the possibility of receptor internalization and subsequent degradation, recycling, or replacement.

Control of insulin receptor level in 3T3 cells: effect of insulin-induced down-regulation and dexamethasone-induced up-regulation on rate of receptor inactivation

Chronic exposure of 3T3 mouse fibroblasts to insulin or to the glucocorticoid dexamethasone induces down-regulation and up-regulation, respectively, of cell-surface and total cellular insulin binding capacity. Both processes are reversed upon withdrawal of the inducer. Scatchard analysis of insulin binding for receptors in the down- and up-regulated states indicates that the changes in binding capacity result primarily from alterations in insulin receptor level. That these alterations in total receptor level are due to changes in cell-surface receptor level is indicated by the fact that the level of trypsin-insensitive, presumably intracellular, insulin binding sites does not change appreciably upon down- and up-regulation. The effects of insulin-induced down-regulation and dexamethasone-induced up-regulation on the rates of insulin receptor synthesis and decay were assessed by the heavy-isotope density-shift technique. Cells were shifted to medium containing heavy (2H, 13C, 15N) amino acids and, at various times after the shift, light and heavy receptors solubilized from total cellular membranes were resolved by isopycnic banding on density gradients and then quantitated. It was demonstrated that the insulin- and dexamethasone-induced alterations in insulin receptor level were due entirely to changes in the rate constant for receptor inactivation. The decrease in the first-order rate constant for receptor decay caused by dexamethasone is unexpected in view of the known action of steroid hormones in the induction of the synthesis of specific proteins.