Effects of molybdate on steroid receptors in intact GH1 cells. Evidence for dissociation of an intracellular 10 S receptor oligomer prior to nuclear accumulation.

Treatment of intact GH1 cells with sodium molybdate inhibits the subsequent rate of nuclear accumulation of hormone-occupied glucocorticoid and estrogen receptors. Cells were incubated at 23 degrees C for 1 h with 30 mM molybdate and then for up to 30 min with [3H]triamcinolone acetonide or [3H]estradiol in the continued presence of molybdate. Although molybdate did not affect the rate of receptor occupancy with either steroid, cells treated with molybdate had more occupied cytosolic and fewer occupied nuclear receptors than control cells. For the glucocorticoid receptor, cells treated with molybdate had more 10 S and fewer 4 S cytosolic receptors than control cells. In low salt cytosol molybdate inhibits the temperature-mediated subunit dissociation of occupied 10 S glucocorticoid receptor. These results suggest that a hormone-mediated dissociation of an intracellular 10 S oligomeric glucocorticoid receptor form to its 4 S subunits is required prior to accumulation of occupied receptors in the nuclear fraction. In cells incubated at 37 degrees C for 1 h or longer with [3H]triamcinolone acetonide, molybdate shifts the steady state intracellular distribution of receptor toward the 10 S cytosolic receptor form, consistent with the interpretation that molybdate affects the rapidly exchanging subunit equilibrium between the 10 S and 4 S cytosolic forms by slowing the rate of 10 S receptor dissociation. Molybdate prevents loss of glucocorticoid-occupied 10 S but not 4 S receptors in heated cytosol by stabilizing the relatively protease-resistant 10 S receptor. Since molybdate stabilizes 10 S oligomeric steroid receptors in vitro, the effects of molybdate on nuclear accumulation of occupied receptors in intact cells support the intracellular existence and physiological relevance of 10 S glucocorticoid and estrogen receptors. These results support a general model for steroid receptor activation in which binding of hormone promotes dissociation of intracellular 8-10 S oligomeric receptors to their DNA-binding subunits.