Up-regulation of insulin receptors with dexamethasone in cultured human urinary bladder carcinoma cells.

Cultured human urinary bladder carcinoma cells ( JTC -32) were used to investigate the regulation of insulin receptors by dexamethasone. When the cells were preincubated with dexamethasone at 37 degrees C, insulin binding sites increased up to 24 h. A large increase in insulin binding sites took place for 14 h of preincubation with dexamethasone. At lower concentrations of dexamethasone (less than 1 nM), no significant increase in insulin binding sites was observed, but the maximal increase was observed at more than 10 nM. Scatchard plots showed that dexamethasone increased the number of high affinity insulin binding sites (2.8 fold) without any change in the apparent equilibrium constant in JTC -32 cells. In addition, this steroid hormone also increased the number of low affinity insulin binding sites (1.6 fold) with a small change in the apparent equilibrium constant. Although insulin and dexamethasone did not affect the number of cells or the amount of cellular proteins per dish, dexamethasone plus insulin slightly increased them.