Insulin stimulates integrin-linked kinase in UMR-106 cells: potential role of heparan sulfate on syndecan-1.

Insulin plays a wide variety of physiological actions in osteoblast cells such as differentiation and gene expression. Integrins are transmembrane heterodimeric proteins consisting of α and β subunits which transduce signals from extracellular matrix into the cell. The integrin-mediated signals regulate gene expression, differentiation and survival of osteoblast. In the present study, we explored to determine if insulin could regulate integrin-linked kinase (ILK) signaling in osteoblast like UMR-106 cells. Insulin rapidly stimulated ILK activity in a time-dependent manner with maximal activity observed at 60 min. The insulin's ability to stimulate ILK was almost completely abolished when the cells were pre-incubated with heparinase III (HepIII), suggesting the heparan sulfates attached to syndecan-1 play an important role in the activation of ILK in response to insulin. Interestingly, insulin also activated Akt activity by phosphorylation, whereas pre-treatment of HepIII failed to interfere Akt activation by insulin. In contrast, HepIII pre-treatment inhibited alkaline phosphatase stimulation and collagen synthesis in response to insulin. These results strongly suggest that heparan sulfates on the syndecan-1 and/or shedding of syndecan-1 play a significant role in regulating ILK by insulin, and thereby regulating alkaline phosphatase and collagen synthesis in osteoblast cells.