Nutrition and somatomedin. VI. Somatomedin activity and somatomedin inhibitory activity in sera from normal and diabetic rats.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to L S Phillips.
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To test the hypothesis that somatomedin activity is influenced by diabetes and its metabolic regulation, the relationship between somatomedin activity and diabetic control as assessed by hemoglobin A1C was investigated in 40 children with insulin-dependent diabetes. An inverse correlation between hemoglobin A1C and serum somatomedin activity was statistically significant. The data suggest that abnormalities of linear growth, which can occur in children with poorly controlled diabetes, may involve abnormalities in net somatomedin activity.
Plasma somatomedin (SM) activity and growth hormone (GH) concentration were measured in ten growth-retarded, well-nourished pediatric renal allograft recipients who received daily prednisone therapy. The SM activity ranged from 0.21 to 1.22 micron/mL, and it was subnormal in three patients. A significant correlation was found between SM activity and creatinine clearance. Serial SM levels were determined during a 24-hour period in five patients; SM activity decreased at six and 12 hours and returned to normal values by 24 hours. The 24-hour plasma GH concentrations ranged from 1.5 to 7.6 mg/mL. Peak GH concentrations ranged from 2.1 to 14.2 ng/mL after insulin-induced hypoglycemia and from 1.8 to 24.6 ng/mL after oral glucose loading. Sleeping GH peaks were absent in two patients. These results suggest that growth failure in renal allograft recipients who receive daily prednisone may result from (1) partial GH deficiency, (2) reduced SM levels owing to diminished allograft function, and (3) daily transient decrease in plasma SM levels after prednisone administration.
Plasma prednisolone levels have been measured hourly in children receiving a single dose of oral prednisone. Peak prednisolone levels occurred one to two hours after ingestion; half-life studies gave a mean value of 132 minutes in most children. Some children had marked variability in absorption and metabolism of prednisone. Somatomedin activity and cell-mediated immunity were inhibited by plasma prednisolone values which were achieved by single doses of prednisone of 0.5 mg/kg or higher. Monitoring prednisolone levels may be of value in identifying those children who accumulate excessively high levels on moderate dosage regimens.
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Bioassayable serum somatomedin activity could be estimated in uremic subjects only after appropriate correction for increased circulating inorganic sulfate. Somatomedin activity increased after hemodialysis in six of ten patients, possibly due to removal of somatomedin inhibitors.
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We have studied the binding of 125I-human growth hormone (hGH) to crude 100,000 X g membrane preparations from rat liver, and have studied factors which might regulate the capacity and affinity of hGH binding sites. Membrane preparations have livers of pregnant rats bound between 8% and 18% of the 125I-hGH initially added, and 70%-80% of that bound was displaced by 1 mug of unlabeled hGH. Humans prolactin (hPrl) displaced 125 I-hGH in a manner parallel to hGH itself but with about one-third the potency. Ovine, porcine, and rat Prl, and rat and bovine GH were much less effective. Scatchard analysis of specific hGH binding by a variety of different rat liver membrane preparations revealed a single order of binding site in each case with a binding affinity of 0.93-1.62 X 10(-9) M-1. Membranes from pregnant rats had twice the binding capacity of membranes from nonpregnant female rats, and about six times the capacity of sites present in preparations from normal adult male rats and hypophysectomized (Hx) male or female rats. Female or male rats with extremely high circulating GH an Prl levels, due to the presence of transplantable GH/Prl secreting pituitary tumors showed a significantly greater binding capacity than did the pregnant rats. Estradiol (E2) treatment (25 mug/day for 10-12 days) of normal male rats led to an increase in specific hGH binding. Treatment of hypophysectomized male rats with bovine GH (100 or 500 mug/day) +/- E2 (25 mug/day) for 5-10 days stimulated both body weight gain and the incorporation of sulfate by cartilage from the treated rats, but no significant increase was observed in the characteristics of 125I-hGH binding. These results indicate that high levels of E2, GH, and/or Prl play an important role in the regulation of hGH binding sites in rat liver membranes. The restoration of binding sites in liver from hypophysectomized rats, however, apparently requires additional factors which are as yet unidentified. The role of the hGH binding sites in the physiologic actions of GH also remains to be determined.
We compared the somatomedin (SM) activity of perfusates of livers from normal and hypophysectomized (hypox) rats with and without the addition of growth hormone (GH) to the perfusions. Livers were perfused for a total of 3 hours, with a change of Waymouth's medium MB 752/l every 30 min, in a continously recirculating system. SM activity was estimated by the stimulation of the incorporation of sulfate by hypox rat costal cartilage incubated in vitro. Endogenous SM activity (no addition of GH) in the perfusates of the livers of normal rats was initially 136 +/- 17% above buffer levels (mean +/- SE) and fell gradually to near-buffer levels over the first 2 1/2 hours. Endogenous SM activity in the perfusates of livers from hypox rats was initially 72 +/- 10% above buffer levels, significantly lower than that of the normal livers, and reached buffer levels with the fifth medium change. Pretreatment of hypox rats with GH in vivo increased their initial liver perfusate SM activity to 134 +/- 25%, comparable to that of normal livers and significantly greater than that of livers of untreated hypox rats. The addition of GH (25 mug/ml) to the perfusion of both normal and hypox rat livers led to significant increases in perfusate SM activity compared with that of control perfusates at the same time periods. The increase in SM activity was not significant until after 0-30 minutes with hypox livers, and after 30-90 minutes with normal livers. Although it has previously been reported that the direct addition of GH to livers perfusion systems led to an increase in perfusate SM activity, we have now established that in the absence of added GH, perfusates of normal rat livers contain significant SM activity, and that perfusates of normal rat livers contain more SM activity than perfusates of hypox rat livers. In addition, the observation that GH pretreatment increases the SM activity of perfusates of hypox rat livers constitutes the first evidence that SM activity of any body tissue may be altered by administration of GH in vivo.
Livers from hypophysectomized (hypox) rats were perfused with oxygenated Waymouth's medium in a system which permitted continuous recirculation for separate 30 minute periods after which fresh medium was supplied. In most experiments 6 changes of medium were carried out over a 3 hour period. The somatomedin activity of each perfusate was determined by measuring its ability to stimulate sulfate uptake in hypox rat cartilage in vitro. For comparison between experiments the results are expressed as the per cent stimulation of sulfate uptake by the perfusate compared with the unperfused buffer. Without hormonal additions there was a progressive fall in the release of somatomedin activity during the 6 periods of study. When compared with the results without hormone, the addition of 1000 muU/ml of insulin per ml of medium during the 2nd to 6th period led to a significant increase in perfusate somatomedin activity at all periods. The addition of 100 muU/ml of insulin was without significant effect. The possible inter-relationship between insulin and growth hormone in the regulation of somatomedin release was studied with a dose of bGH of 250 ng/ml which had previously been shown to be insufficient by itsel to stimulate somatomedin release. When added to a medium containing 1000 muU/ml of insulin, this dose of bGH did not significantly stimulate somatomedin release beyond that obtained with insulin alone. However, when 250 ng/ml was added to a medium containing 100 muU/ml insulin, a significant stimulation of somatomedin release was observed while the addition of each hormone separately was without significant effect. These results support the hypothesis that insulin shares with GH the regulation of somatomedin release by the liver. Differences in insulin concentration may explain some clinical situations in which somatomedin concentrations cannot be correlated with GH levels.
The relationship between nutrition, somatomedin, and growth was studied in young male rats which were fasted for 72 h, and then refed. Cartilage growth activity was measured by the incorporation of SO4 by costal cartilage incubated in vitro. Serum somatomedin activity was measured by the ability of sera to stimulate the incorporation of SO4 in vitro by cartilage from hypophysectomized rats or normal young pigs. Cartilage growth activity was unchanged after 24 h of fasting, but decreased significantly to hypopituitary levels after 72 h. The decrease in cartilage growth activity could not be attributed to a decrease in the ability of cartilage to respond to somatomedin, since fasted rat cartilage incubated in vitro had significantly greater stimulation from the addition of normal rat serum (normal somatomedin) than from the addition of hypophysectomized rat serum (low somatomedin). A decrease in serum somatomedin preceded the decrease in growth activity; somatomedin was significantly decreased after 24 h of fasting, and fell to hypopituitary levels after 72 h of fasting. The decrease in somatomedin could not be attributed to growth hormone deficiency, since treatment with bGH did not prevent the fall in somatomedin. The direct addition of fasted rat serum to normal rat serum did not inhibit the somatomedin activity of the normal serum. The refeeding of 72h-fasted rats was associated with an increase in serum somatomedin which was significant after 6 h, and comparable to control levels after 24 h of refeeding. The increase in somatomedin was followed by an increase in cartilage growth activity, which was significant after 12 h, and comparable to control levels after 48 h of refeeding. We conclude that adequate food intake appears to be required for the maintenance of normal levels of somatomedin; the processing of nutrients may modulate the generation of somatomedin.
To elucidate the mechanism for growth following surgery in children with craniopharyngioma, serum somatomedin and prolactin levels, and plasma insulin (IRI) levels in response to oral glucose and intravenous tolbutamide, were determined in 5 and 8 children, respectively, at variable intervals following removal of the tumor. All patients had growth hormone (GH) deficiency following surgery. Seven of 8 children had normal growth (5 cm per year or greater) postoperatively for varying periods of time; 2 children continued to grow normally 6 and 8 years after surgery. Mean (+/- SE) somatomedin level was 0.78 +/- 0.1 U/ml (normal 0.4-1.5 U/ml). Serum somatomedin was normal in 4 children with normal postoperative growth and was also normal in a child who grew poorly. Mean (+/- SE) prolactin level was 6.9 +/- 3.3 ng/ml (normal 0-20 ng/ml). In 5 non-obese children with craniopharyngioma mean (+/- SE) peak IRI level was 104.4 +/- 24.4 muU/ml after oral glucose and 56.7 +/- 8.4 muU/ml after intravenous tolbutamide. These values are similar to mean (+/- SE) peak IRI levels following glucose and tolbutamide in normal children, and significantly higher (P less than 0.05) than those of idiopathic hypopituitary children. In 2 obese children with craniopharyngioma peak IRI levels were 255 and 107 muU/ml after glucose and 208 and 103 muU/ml after tolbutamide, respectively. The patient with suboptimal growth had low IRI responses to stimuli similar to hypopituitary children. Although there was a significant correlation between peak IRI levels following glucose (r = 0.63, P less than 0.025) and tolbutamide (r = 0.75, P less than 0.01) and the rates of growth of the combined data from obese and non-obese patients, no correlation was found between the growth rates of only the non-obese craniopharyngioma patients and their peak IRI levels. No significant correlation was found between mean somatomedin level and mean rate of growth. Normal postoperative growth in all children with craniopharyngioma was associated with normal serum somatomedin activity and pancreatic beta-cell responsiveness to stimuli despite GH deficiency. The results suggest that insulin may be important in the control of somatomedin and growth in these children.
In these studies of the stimulation of embryonic chick pelvic rudiments by somatomedin (Sm) in serum, we have found that cartilage weight and duration of cartilage exposure to serum determine the stimulation of cartilage by serum and the relative stimulation by Sm and by other non-Sm serum components, respectively. These factors are critical for the use of this system to measure Sm in serum. Initial experiments revealed that incorporation of sulfate (SO4) by cartilage incubated in buffer fell rapidly after 9 h and reached very low levels by 30 h. Incubation in 40% normal human serum (NHS) produced significant stimulation of incorporation of SO4 after 4 h, and maintained at least initial levels of incorporation for 24 h. The greatest % stimulation by NHS over buffer was seen with prolonged incubation (44 h). However, specificity for Sm (iscrimination between NHS and hypophysectomized human serum (HHS)) was greater with shorter incubation times. The potency of HHS was 11, 42 and 92% of the potency of NHS following early, intermediate and late measurement of incorporation of SO4 by cartilage, respectively. The best overall results were obtained with intermediate incubation time and measurement of SO4 incorporation ((35S)-SO4 present for the final 5 h of a 25 h incubation), which allowed good precision (gamma = 0.17) while maintaining satisfactory specificity for Sm. Since prolonged incubation with late measurement of SO4 incorporation allowed the greatest % stimulation by serum with little differentiation between NHS and HHS, stimulation of incorporation of SO4 under these conditions is apparently due to non-Sm factors present in both NHS and HHS. In addition to incubation time, cartilage stimulation by serum was also determined by cartilage weight. Lighter cartilage (from younger embryos) was associated with higher unstimulated incorporation of SO4 (P less than 0.01), lower stimulation by added serum (P less than 0.01), and inadequate assay precision (P less than 0.05): satisfactory assays were generally obtained with cartilage rudiments weighing more than 0.7 mg (dry weight).
Since diabetes mellitus is a condition in which poor growth occurs despite elevation of plasma GH, we have attempted to determine if poor growth in diabetes, as in malnutrition, could be associated with a decrease in somatomedin activity. Young male rats were rendered diabetic with intravenous streptozotocin (STZ). The growth activity of their cartilage was estimated by 35SO4 incorporation in vitro, and somatomedin (SM) activity in their serum was determined by the stimulation of SO4 incorporation by cartilage from hypophysectomized rats or normal young pigs. Cartilage growth activity was significantly decreased 24 hours after STZ and fell to hypopituitary levels after 48 hours. The decreased growth activity could not be attributed to decreased cartilage responsiveness to SM, since incubation of diabetic cartilage with normal rat serum (normal SM) resulted in significant stimulation of cartilage SO4 incorporation. SM in diabetic serum decreased to hypopituitary levels 24 hours after STZ, and decreased further after 48 hours. The decrease in SM and cartilage growth activity was not prevented by the administration of high doses of bovine GH. The fall in bioassayable SM appeared to be due in part to the presence of an SM inhibitor in the diabetic serum, since addition of diabetic serum to normal serum decreased to measurable SM in the normal serum. Administration of insulin to diabetic rats 48 hours after STZ led to significant increases in SM and cartilage growth activity, and insulin therapy 24 hours after STZ prevented the decreases in SM and cartilage growth activity which occurred without insulin. Thus, acute STZ-induced diabetes in rats was associated with a significant decrease in both serum SM and cartilage growth activity; these changes were not ameliorated by administration of GH, and insulin therapy could both prevent and reverse the fall in SM and cartilage growth activity. From these observations, we conclude that (1) that fall in somatomedin activity and cartilage growth activity associated with STZ-induced diabetes appears to be due to insulin deficiency and (2) growth failure in diabetes, as in malnutrition, may be due to decreased somatomedin activity.
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