Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase mRNA sequence abundance in primary cultures of rat hepatocytes. Effect of insulin and dexamethasone.

Hepatic glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH; EC 1.1.1.49) is subject to nutritional regulation. To assess the possible role of hormones in this regulation, the amounts of G6PDH mRNA were studied in primary cultures of rat hepatocytes treated with insulin and dexamethasone, alone or in combination. Relative concentrations of G6PDH mRNA were directly assessed by a dot-blot hybridization procedure with nick-translated cDNA probes. G6PDH sequence abundance increased when the cultures were treated with insulin or dexamethasone, but the G6PDH mRNA induced by dexamethasone was not expressed at the protein level as active enzyme. In cultures treated with insulin and dexamethasone in combination, enzyme activity and G6PDH sequence abundance were greater than those induced by insulin alone. Our results directly demonstrate that G6PDH mRNA amounts are modulated in liver by these two classes of hormones and can partially account for the dietary induction of the enzyme observed in vivo.