Effect of insulin, glucagon or dexamethasone on the production of insulin-like growth factor I in cultured rat hepatocytes.

We studied the effect of insulin, glucagon or dexamethasone on the production of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) by cultured rat hepatocytes. Hepatocytes were isolated from normal adult rat livers and cultured in MEM, as nearly confluent monolayers. In the absence of such hormones, IGF-I and albumin accumulated in the culture medium almost linearly for periods up to 24 hours with the accumulation rates of 140 mU/mg cell protein per hour and 1.2 micrograms/mg cell protein per hour, respectively. Cycloheximide (5 micrograms/ml) almost completely inhibited the accumulation of IGF-I and albumin in the medium. Insulin at concentrations over 10(-10) M significantly inhibited the production of IGF-I in spite of the increased production of albumin. Conversely, glucagon stimulated the production of IGF-I at concentrations over 10(-8) M, but inhibited the production of albumin at concentrations over 10(-10) M. Dexamethasone stimulated the production of IGF-I at concentrations over 10(-7) M, but had no significant effects on the production of albumin. Thus, IGF-I production of hepatocytes is regulated by several hormones with different manner from albumin production.