Endocrinology Vol. 140, No. 3 1219-1227
Copyright © 1999 by The Endocrine Society
Growth Hormone and Dexamethasone Stimulate Lipolysis and Activate Adenylyl Cyclase in Rat Adipocytes by Selectively Shifting Gi
2 to Lower Density Membrane Fractions1
Rupert Guk-Chor Yip2 and
H. Maurice Goodman
Department of Physiology, University of Massachusetts
Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01655
Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Dr. H. Maurice Goodman, Department of Physiology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, Massachusetts 01655. E-mail:
maurice.goodman{at}banyan.ummed.edu
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Abstract
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GH, in the presence of glucocorticoid, produces a delayed increase in
lipolysis in rat adipose tissue, but the biochemical mechanisms that
account for this action have not been established. Other lipolytic
agents rapidly activate adenylyl cyclase (AC) and the resulting
production of cAMP initiates a chain of reactions that culminates in
the activation of hormone-sensitive lipase. We compared responses of
segments of rat epididymal fat or isolated adipocytes to 30 ng/ml GH
and 0.1 µg/ml dexamethasone (Dex) with 0.1 ng/ml isoproterenol (ISO),
which evoked a similar increase in lipolysis. All measurements were
made during the fourth hour after the addition of GH+Dex or immediately
after the addition of ISO to cells or tissues that had been
preincubated for 3 h without hormone. Although no significant
increases in cAMP were discernible in homogenates of GH+Dex-treated
tissues, RP-cAMPS (RP-adenosine
3'5'-phosphothioate), a competitive inhibitor of cAMP, was equally
effective in decreasing lipolysis induced by GH+Dex or ISO. The
proportion of PKA that was present in the active form was determined by
measuring the incorporation of 32P from
[
-32P]ATP into kemptide in the absence and presence of
saturating amounts of cAMP. GH+Dex and ISO produced similar increases
in protein kinase A activity in tissue extracts. Treatment with GH+Dex
did not change the total forskolin-stimulated AC present in either a
crude membrane pellet sedimented at 16K x g or a
less dense membrane pellet sedimented at 100K x g,
but doubled the AC activity in the 16K pellet when assayed in the
absence of forskolin. To evaluate possible effects on G proteins,
pellets obtained from centrifugation of adipocyte homogenates at
16K x g and 100K x g were
solubilized and subjected to PAGE and Western analysis. GH+Dex
decreased Gi
2 by 44% (P < 0.02) in
the 16K pellets and increased it by 52% (P <
0.01) in the 100K pellets. Gs
in the 16K pellet was
unaffected by GH+Dex and was decreased (P < 0.05)
in the 100K pellet. Sucrose density fractionation of the 16K pellets
revealed a similar GH+Dex-dependent shift of Gi
2 to less
dense fractions as determined by both Western analysis and
[32P]NAD ribosylation catalyzed by pertussis toxin. No
such changes were seen in the distribution of Gs
or
5'-nucleotidase. Colchicine (100 µM) blocked the
GH+Dex-dependent shift of Gi
2 from the 16K to the 100K
pellet and blocked the lipolytic effects of GH+Dex, but not those of
ISO. We conclude that by modifying the relationship between AC and
Gi
2, GH+Dex relieves some inhibition of cAMP production
and consequently increases lipolysis.
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Introduction
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TREATMENT with GH decreases body fat
content by decreasing lipogenesis and increasing lipolysis (1).
Consistent with these actions, GH increases lipolysis when added
in vitro to adipocytes of many species, including rats (2),
mice (3), chickens (4), rhesus monkeys (Goodman, H. M., and L.-R.
Tai, unpublished), and perhaps humans (5). The lipolytic effect
of GH has been studied most extensively in the rat and differs in
several respects from the well characterized lipolytic effect
of catecholamines. For example, epinephrine may increase glycerol
production 10-fold or more within just a few minutes, and this effect
is independent of ongoing RNA and protein synthesis (6). In contrast,
GH seldom increases lipolysis more than about 3-fold and acts only
after a delay of approximately 12 h, reflecting the requirement for
RNA and protein synthesis (6). Glucocorticoids potentiate the lipolytic
responses to both GH (6) and epinephrine (7), but stimulation
of lipolysis by GH in rat adipocytes is often unmeasurable in the
absence of glucocorticoid (8). However, glucocorticoids apparently are
not required for GH to stimulate lipolysis in chicken (4), mouse (3),
or human adipocytes (5).
Stimulation of lipolysis by epinephrine and other rapidly acting
agents results from activation of adenylyl cyclase (AC), followed by
activation of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA), and the
phosphorylation and activation of hormone-sensitive lipase (9). The
biochemical pathway through which GH activates lipolysis has not been
elucidated, but available data suggest that GH stimulates lipolysis by
activating the same cAMP-dependent pathway as that used by
catecholamines. GH activates hormone-sensitive lipase in 3T3442A
adipocytes (10) and glycogen phosphorylase in rat adipocytes (11).
Both of these enzymes are substrates for PKA (12). The lipolytic and
glycogenolytic actions of GH are enhanced by theophyline (13, 14),
which inhibits cAMP degradation and blocks adenosine A1 receptors that
provide inhibitory input to AC (15). Moskowitz and Fain (16) reported
that in the presence of glucocorticoid GH caused a
cycloheximide-sensitive increase in cAMP concentration in suspensions
of rat adipocytes after a delay of 2 h. In these studies, however,
cAMP was present largely in the incubation medium, with no detectable
changes in the cells, and the cAMP concentrations did not correlate
with rates of lipolysis. Subsequent studies (17, 18) showed that GH
increased cAMP accumulation in adipocyte suspensions, but only when
high concentrations of other agents (theophyline, catecholamines, or
glucagon) that themselves increase cAMP were also present.
Receptors for hormones that produce their biological effects
through changes in cAMP production belong to the superfamily of hormone
receptors that have seven membrane-spanning domains and are coupled to
adenylyl cyclase (19) through heterotrimeric G proteins. The GH
receptor, on the other hand, belongs to the superfamily of receptors
that have a single membrane-spanning region and signal through
associated tyrosine kinases of the JAK family (20). Stimulation of
these receptors is thought to activate transcription by way of the STAT
(signal transduction and activation of transcription) proteins and the
mitogen-activated protein kinases (20). No direct interaction of GH
receptors with G proteins or AC has been described. Nevertheless, some
observations indicate that G proteins are affected by GH.
Hypophysectomy increased and treatment with GH for only 3 h
decreased the apparent abundance of the inhibitory G protein
(Gi) in rat adipocyte ghosts, as judged by a
decrease in pertussis toxin-catalyzed NAD ribosylation (21). Roupas
et al. (22) treated obese mice with a diabetogenic analog of
GH and found a similar decrease in pertussis toxin-catalyzed
ribosylation in adipocyte membranes. Conversely, treatment of normal
rats with antiserum to GH for 2 days increased Gi
2 in
adipocyte plasma membranes, and this effect was reversed by
simultaneous administration of GH (23). These observations coupled with
the findings that 1) basal rates of lipolysis in adipocytes are under
tonic inhibitory control mediated by Gi (21, 24);
2) GH increases cAMP accumulation in response to catecholamines and
other agonists (19, 20); 3) GH sensitizes adipocytes to catecholamines
(7, 16, 25); and 4) GH deprivation sensitizes adipocytes to
antilipolytic agents (23) are consistent with the hypothesis that GH
might decrease inhibitory input to AC by actions exerted on
Gi and thereby increase cAMP production and
lipolysis.
The present study was undertaken to evaluate the hypothesis that GH (in
the presence of dexamethasone) increases lipolysis by an action on
Gi that results in deinhibition of AC and the subsequent
acceleration of lipolysis through cAMP-mediated events.
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Materials and Methods
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Animals
Normal male rats of the Charles River CD strain (Charles River
Breeding Laboratories, Kingston, NY) were used in all experiments in
accordance with protocols approved by the University of Massachusetts
Medical School animal care and use committee. Rats were fed Purina 5008
(Ralston Purina Co., St. Louis, MO) from the time they
were received until they were studied 12 weeks later and had attained
a body weight of 180250 µg. The rats were maintained at constant
temperature (24 C) and lighting, with lights on from 06001800 h. Rats
were killed by cervical dislocation, and epididymal fat pads were
removed.
Incubations
Thin distal portions of epididymal fat pads or isolated
adipocytes (26) were incubated (1:10 dilution) in Krebs-Ringer
bicarbonate buffer (pH 7.4) that contained 5.5 mM glucose
and 1% (wt/vol) BSA (Introgen Co., NY). Incubations were
carried out in a shaking water bath (37 C) under an atmosphere of 95%
O2-5% CO2 for 4 h. Human GH
(Genentech, Inc., San Francisco, CA; 30 ng/ml) and 0.1
µg/ml dexamethasone (Dex;
9
-fluoro-11ß,17
-trihydroxy-16
-methyl-1,4-pregnadiene-3,20-dione;
Lypho-Med, Inc., Chicago, IL) were added to the incubation medium and
present throughout the incubation. Because the GH-induced increase in
lipolysis is not fully developed for at least 2 h, measurements of
lipolysis and related biochemical events were made only during the
fourth hour of incubation with GH and Dex. To do so, tissues segments
were incubated for 3 h with hormone and then transferred to fresh
medium of the same composition to permit collection of glycerol
produced in the final hour of incubation. Because of its rapid onset of
action, l-isoproterenol (ISO; Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO; 0.1 ng/ml or 1 µg/ml)) was added to
tissues or cells that had preincubated for 3 h, and its effects
were studied during the fourth hour. Glycerol was assayed enzymatically
(27). When suspensions of isolated adipocytes were studied, the
difference in glycerol concentrations in aliquots of medium sampled
after 3 and 4 h of incubation was used to estimate glycerol
produced in the fourth hour.
Homogenate preparations
Tissues (
100 mg) or isolated adipocytes (20-ml packed cell
volume) were disrupted in 2 vol homogenization buffer (10
mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.4; 1 mM EDTA; 8.7 ng/ml
phenylmethylsulfonylfluoride; and 50 µg/ml leupeptin) at 4 C in
ground glass homogenizers with 10 up/down strokes. The homogenates were
allowed to settle for 10 min in an ice bath until a fat cake formed.
After removal of the fat cake, the infranatants were used for
preparation of membranes or assays of cAMP, AC, or PKA.
Membrane preparations
Partially purified adipocyte plasma membranes were prepared by
the method of McKeel and Jarret (28). Briefly, homogenates were
centrifuged at 12,000 rpm for 20 min using an SS-34 rotor in a Sorval
RC2-B centrifuge (DuPont, Wilmington, DE) to obtain a
16,000 x g pellet (16K pellet) that contained about
8090% of the plasma membranes. The resulting supernate was
centrifuged for 1 h at 50,000 rpm using a Ti 60 rotor in a
Beckman Coulter, Inc. (Palo Alto, CA) L8-M
ultracentrifuge. The resulting 100,00 x g pellet (100K
pellet) contained less than 20% of the plasma membranes as determined
in assays of 5'-nucleotidase or AC (see below). In some experiments the
16K fraction was resuspended in 1 ml homogenization buffer and layered
over linear sucrose density gradients (525%) for further
purification by centrifugation using a SW41 rotor at 37,000 rpm
(100,000 x g) for 90 min. Fractions were collected by
carefully pipetting 0.8-ml aliquots from the tops of the tubes.
Western blot analyses
The 16K and 100K pellets or sucrose gradient fractions prepared
from adipocytes that had incubated for 4 h without or with GH+Dex
were dissolved in Laemmli buffer (29). Protein content was determined
by the Lowry method (30) before loading samples on 10%
SDS-polyacrylamide gels. Samples were resolved by electrophoresis
(PAGE) with a vertical electrophoresis apparatus (Hoefer SE600, San
Francisco, CA) and transferred to nitrocellulose membranes (MSI,
Westborough, MA) according to the method of Towbin (31) using a Hoefer
TE42 transfer apparatus. Nonspecific antibody-binding sites were
blocked by soaking the membranes in 10% milk proteins in PBS for
2 h at room temperature followed by washing three times for 2 min
in PBS and 1% milk proteins. Membranes were then incubated for 2
h at 4 C with a 1:1000 dilution of rabbit anti-Gi
2 or
Gs
in PBS that contained 1% milk proteins.
The membranes were washed three times for 2 min each time and once for
20 min in PBS, 1% milk proteins, and 0.3% Tween-20. Polyclonal
antibodies directed against the C-terminal decapeptide of
Gi
2 (KENLKDCGLF) or Gs
(QRMHLRQYELL) and characterized by Rapiejko et al. (32) were
provided by Dr. Craig Malbon. Membranes were then reincubated at 4 C
for 2 h with a 1:10,000 dilution of goat antirabbit antiserum
conjugated to horseradish peroxidase. After washing as described above,
the membranes were soaked for 1 min in enhanced chemiluminescent (ECL)
reagent (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Arlington Heights,
IL). The membranes were then exposed to x-ray film (Kodak XAR,
Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, NY) for 5 sec to 60 min.
After development of the films, the membranes were stripped of
antibodies by soaking in 60 mM Tris-HCl, pH 6.8, that
contained 2% SDS and 0.1 M ß-mercaptoethanol for 30 min
at 37 C with occasional shaking and then reprobed as described above.
The intensity of the chemiluminescent bands was quantitated by
densitometry.
PKA was assayed according to the methods and conditions used by
Roskowski (33) and Corbin (34). Homogenates of fat tissues (
25 µl)
were added to assay mixtures that consisted of homogenization buffer
containing 100 µM kemptide and 100 µM
[
-32P] ATP, (SA, 5 µCi/µmol; Amersham Pharmacia Biotech) with or without 100 µM cAMP and
were made up to a final volume of 50 µl. After incubation for 10 min
at 37 C, 20-µl aliquots of the reaction mixtures were spotted on
Whatman P81 paper (Clifton, NJ) and washed three times in
75 mM phosphoric acid and once in 95% ethanol. After
drying, the papers were counted in scintillation cocktail (Optifuor,
Beckman Coulter, Inc. Palo Alto, CA). Data were expressed
as the ratio of enzyme activity measured in the absence and presence of
cAMP and represent the degree of PKA activation by GH+Dex or ISO.
AC was assayed following the procedure of Salomon et al.
(35). Briefly, 50-µl aliquots of resuspended 16K and 100K pellets
were mixed with 300 µl AC assay mixture (25 mM Tris-HCl,
pH 7.4; 12.5 mM MgCl2; 20 mM
creatine phosphate; 250 U/ml creatine phosphokinase; 1 mM
ATP; and 100 µM GTP) with and without 1 mM
forskolin and incubated at 30 C for 10 min. The reaction was terminated
by the addition of 50 µl of 25% ice-cold trichloroacetic acid. The
mixture was centrifuged at 16K x g for 15 min, and
after extraction of trichloroacetic acid with ether, the aqueous
supernate was assayed for cAMP using a RIA assay kit from
Amersham Pharmacia Biotech. Data were expressed as the
ratio of enzyme activity measured in the absence and presence of
forskolin and represent the degree of AC activation by GH+Dex.
ADP-ribosylation was carried out according to the procedure of Roupas
et al. (22). After resuspension, aliquots of 16K pellets
(3050 mg protein) were incubated for 30 min at 37 C in a total volume
of 100 µl 100 mM Tris-HCL (pH 8.0) that contained 2
µg/ml activated pertussis toxin (Sigma Chemical Co., St.
Louis, MO), 2 mM ATP, 25 mM dithiothreitol, and
5 µCi [
-32P]NAD (SA, 5 µCi/µM;
Amersham Pharmacia Biotech). Reactions were terminated by
adding 50 µl 2-fold concentrated Laemmli buffer (29). After
solubilization by boiling, the samples were resolved by SDS-PAGE, and
ribosylation was quantified by densitometric analysis of the
autoradiograms.
5'-Nucleotidase activity was used as an enzyme marker for plasma
membranes. Aliquots of cell extracts were incubated for 15 min without
or with
,ß-methyleneadenosine diphosphate, which specifically
inhibits plasma membrane-associated 5'-nucleotidase (36) in 60
mM Tris-HCl buffer (pH 7.4) that contained 100
µM [U-14C]5'-AMP (SA, 0.15 µCi/µmol;
DuPont-New England Nuclear, Boston, MA). The reactions
were terminated by the addition of 5% (wt/vol) ZnSO4 and
0.3 N Ba(OH)2 and centrifuged. Plasma
membrane-associated 5'-nucleotidase activity was measured as the
difference in the rates of appearance of [14C]adenosine
in the supernatant in the absence and presence of
,ß-methyleneadenosine diphosphate.
Statistics
The statistical significance of the data was evaluated by ANOVA
for repeated measures followed by multiple pairwise t tests.
All statistics were performed with the StatView computer program
(Abacus Concepts, Inc., Berkeley, CA). Each experiment consisting of a
separate population of adipocytes pooled from three to eight rats was
considered a single observation.
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Results
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To evaluate the importance of cAMP for GH-induced lipolysis, 10
segments of epididymal fat from each of 16 rats were incubated without
or with human GH and Dex alone or in combination for 3 h. The
tissues were then transferred to fresh medium of the same composition
and reincubated for an additional hour without or with 30
µM RP-cAMPS (RP-adenosine
3'5'-phosphothioate), a cell-permeant competitive inhibitor of cAMP
(37). In addition, 0.1 ng/ml ISO with or without Rp-cAMPS
was added to one pair of tissues that had been preincubated for 3
h without hormones (Fig. 1
). GH alone,
but not Dex alone, elicited a small, but significant, increase in
lipolysis, and the combination of GH and Dex increased glycerol
production about 4-fold. Glycerol production was increased to a similar
extent by ISO, and Rp-cAMPS was equally effective in
antagonizing the response to either GH+Dex or ISO. Higher
concentrations of Rp-cAMPS produced no greater antagonism,
presumably because Rp-cAMPS is also a competitive inhibitor
of cAMP phosphodiesterase and thus permits endogenous cAMP to
accumulate and partially overcome the inhibition of PKA. Although these
results implicate cAMP in the lipolytic action of GH+Dex, no detectable
change in the concentration of cAMP was found after 3 h of
incubation with GH+Dex in parallel experiments (341 ± 35 pmol/g
tissue for controls vs. 359 ± 43 for GH+Dex; n =
16). Similar concentrations of cAMP were also seen in homogenates of
tissues incubated with GH alone or Dex alone and in all four treatment
groups assayed at the end of the fourth hour of incubation.

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Figure 1. Effects of RP-CAMPS on lipolysis.
Segments of epididymal fat were incubated in the absence or presence of
hormones for 3 h. Tissues were then transferred to fresh medium
and reincubated for an additional hour, at the end of which medium was
harvested for measurement of glycerol. GH (30 ng/ml), Dex (1 µg/ml),
and GH+Dex were present for all 4 h. RP-CAMPS (30
µM) and ISO (0.1 ng/ml) were present only during the last
hour of incubation. Each bar represents the mean and
SEM of 16 observations. Lipolysis was significantly
increased by GH (P < 0.05), GH+Dex
(P < 0.01), and ISO (P <
0.01). RP-CAMPS significantly (P <
0.01) reduced the rate of lipolysis in tissues treated with GH+Dex and
ISO.
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Because sustained high rates of lipolysis were observed when cAMP
concentrations were at nearly basal levels in tissue (38) or cell (39, 40) homogenates, we tested the possibility that GH+Dex might increase
cAMP, but only to a level that was below the sensitivity of our assay
or in the cellular locale restricted to the immediate vicinity of PKA.
To provide a physiologically relevant indication of cAMP
concentrations, we took advantage of the observation that PKA activity
correlates directly with rates of glycerol production over a wide range
of lipolytic activities of a variety of cAMP-dependent agonists (41).
Segments of adipose tissue were incubated for 3 h without or with
GH+Dex, followed by a 1-h incubation in the absence or presence of
GH+Dex or ISO. Cell-free extracts were prepared, and PKA was assayed in
the absence or presence of saturating concentrations of cAMP by
measuring the incorporation of 32P from
[
-32P]ATP into kemptide, a specific synthetic
substrate for PKA (Table 1
). Each of the
hormone treatments significantly increased the activity of PKA
expressed either in absolute terms or as a percentage of the total
activatable pool (activity percent), indicating that GH+Dex and ISO
increased either the availability of cAMP or its efficacy in activating
the enzyme. When the rate of glycerol production by the same tissue
segments was expressed as a function of the PKA activity (Fig. 2
), the data fell on a straight line with
a regression coefficient (r) of 0.995, in agreement with the findings
of Honnor et al. (41).

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Figure 2. Glycerol production as a function of PKA activity.
The data for PKA activity shown in Table 1 are plotted as a function of
glycerol production by the same tissues. Each point
represents the mean value for 16 observations. The
horizontal and vertical brackets
represent the SEM for the PKA activity and the rates of
glycerol production, respectively. The increase in glycerol production
was significant (P < 0.05) in all hormone-treated
groups. r, Regression coefficient.
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Further support for the idea that GH+Dex act through increased cAMP
production was obtained from direct assay of AC activity. Isolated
adipocytes were incubated without or with GH+Dex for 4 h. The
cells were harvested at the end of 4 h, and AC activity was
measured in both the 16K plasma membrane fraction and in the pellets
sedimented by centrifugation at 100 x g. Enzyme assays
were performed in the absence and presence of a saturating
concentration of forskolin to distinguish between an effect of GH+Dex
on the activity and an effect on the amount of AC. The 16K pellet
contained more than 4 times as much forskolin-activatable AC activity
as the 100K pellet, in accord with the expected sedimentation of AC
with the plasma membrane fraction. Compared with controls, rates of
cAMP formation were nearly twice as high in the 16K pellets derived
from GH+Dex-treated cells assayed in the absence of forskolin, but were
unchanged by hormone treatment when assayed in the presence of
forskolin (Table 2
). GH+Dex-dependent
changes in AC activity in the 100K pellet were small and statistically
insignificant whether assayed in the presence or absence of forskolin,
and the percent activation was unchanged by GH+Dex. GH+Dex doubled the
rate of glycerol released from these cells in the fourth hour, as
determined from the difference in glycerol concentration measured in
aliquots of medium taken at the end of the third and fourth hours (data
not shown).
To determine whether incubation with GH+Dex affects the abundance of G
proteins in the plasma membranes, Western analyses were performed on
solubilized proteins from the 16K pellet. Incubation for 4 h with
GH+Dex had little or no effect on the abundance of
Gs in this fraction, but severely reduced the
abundance of Gi
2 in the two experiments shown in Fig. 3A
. Loss of Gi
2 from the
plasma membrane fraction might result either from accelerated
degradation or from redistribution to another centrifugal fraction.
Consequently, we examined both the 16K and 100K pellets and the 100K
supernate. The decrease in Gi
2 in the 16K pellet of
GH+Dex-treated cells was accompanied by an increase in its abundance in
the 100K pellet (Fig. 3B
). In the seven experiments summarized in Fig. 4
, treatment with GH+Dex resulted in a
44% decrease in Gi
2 in the 16K pellet and a 52%
increase in the 100K pellet, as determined by densitometric scanning of
Western blots. It is important to note, however, that these data
provide only semiquantitative estimates of G protein abundance because
of differences in exposure times of the films to the ECL reactions
needed for visualization of the bands in the 16K and 100K fractions and
because of the nonlinearity of the film at high or low levels of
chemiluminiscence. As is evident from Fig. 3B
, no Gi
2
was detected in the 100K supernate even after 10-fold concentration of
the proteins and prolonged exposure of the Western blots. Although the
abundance of Gs
in the 16K pellet was
unchanged by treatment with GH+Dex, it appeared to be significantly
reduced in the 100K pellet.
The data in Figs. 3
and 4
suggest that at least some of the decrease in
Gi
2 in the 16K pellet might result from an effect of
GH+Dex to decrease the density of the plasma membranes in the immediate
vicinity of Gi
2 or to translocate Gi
2
selectively to endosomic vesicles. To evaluate this possibility, we
collected plasma membrane fractions on linear sucrose density gradients
and analyzed the distribution of Gi
2 and
Gs
in Western blots probing first for
Gi
2 and subsequently for Gs
(Fig. 5
). The exposed films are shown in
the upper part of the figure. The distributions of G
proteins plotted as arbitrary density units with the highest intensity
assigned a value of 100 are shown below. In this and three additional
experiments of identical design there was no consistent shift in the
density of Gs
after treatment with GH+Dex, but
the maximum intensity of the Gi
2-staining bands was
shifted at least one fraction to the left, i.e. toward a
lower density. Similar results were obtained when aliquots of the same
16K pellets were incubated with pertussis toxin in the presence of
[32P]NAD before application to the sucrose gradient
columns. The proteins were separated by PAGE, and NAD-ribolsylation was
quantified by densitometry of the resulting autoradiograms (Fig. 6
). In four experiments, GH+Dex treatment
shifted peak radioactivity at least one fraction leftward, consistent
with the results obtained by Western blotting. In contrast, the highest
activity of 5'-nucleotidase was found in the same fraction in
control and hormone-treated adipocytes, indicating that GH+Dex did not
substantially shift the distribution of this intrinsic plasma membrane
protein to less dense fractions (Fig. 7
).

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Figure 7. Distribution of 5'-nucleotidase in sucrose density
gradient-separated membrane proteins from control and GH+Dex-treated
adipocytes. Similar results were obtained in three additional
experiments of the same design.
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To test the possibility that the migration of Gi
2 with
less dense plasma membrane fractions might involve membranous or
submembranous proteins that associate with the cytoskeleton, adipocytes
were incubated with GH+Dex in the absence and presence of 100
µM colchicine, and the distribution of Gi
2
in the 16K and 100K pellets was again studied in immunoblots. In four
experiments, treatment with GH+Dex decreased Gi
2 by 43%
in the 16K pellet (Fig. 8
) and increased
it in the 100K pellet by 57% in the cells that were incubated without
colchicine. In the cells that were incubated with colchicine, GH+Dex
produced no significant changes in the abundance of Gi
2
in either fraction. GH+Dex also had no effect on lipolysis in
colchicine-treated cells (Fig. 9
), but
produced the expected increase in lipolysis in cells incubated without
colchicine. In contrast, ISO increased lipolysis to at least as great
an extent in the presence of colchicine as in its absence. When
colchicine was replaced with an equimolar amount of the inactive
analog, lumicolchicine, no inhibition of lipolysis or redistribution of
Gi
2 was seen (data not shown).

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Figure 9. The effects of colchicine on the lipolytic
response to GH+Dex or to 1 µg/ml ISO. Adipocytes were incubated for
4 h in the absence or presence of 100 µM colchicine.
GH+Dex was present from the start of the incubation; ISO was present
only in the final hour. Glycerol production in the fourth hour was
obtained by subtracting the glycerol present in aliquots of medium
sampled at the end of 3 h from that measured at the end of 4
h. Each bar represents the mean of four independent
experiments. The vertical brackets indicate the
SEM. *, P < 0.05 compared with control
values; **, P < 0.05 compared with GH+Dex without
colchicine.
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Discussion
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The present findings support the hypothesis that the increase in
lipolysis produced by GH+Dex or catecholamines results from activation
of the same post-cAMP cascade of reactions. The cAMP antagonist,
Rp-cAMPS, was as effective in blocking lipolysis induced by
GH+Dex as that induced by ISO, and both GH+Dex and ISO increased the
activity of PKA in adipocyte extracts to an extent commensurate with
the increase in glycerol production. In addition, AC activity was
increased in crude adipocyte membrane fractions prepared from
GH+Dex-treated adipocytes. The absence of a detectable increase in cAMP
in extracts of GH+Dex-treated tissues is not necessarily in conflict
with these findings. Little correlation between lipolysis and cAMP
concentrations measured in extracts of adipose tissue or adipocytes was
found after prolonged or repeated stimulation with catecholamines (38, 39). Although the rate of lipolysis remained constant for 1 h in
the continued presence of catecholamine, cAMP levels rose 2- to 4-fold
within the initial 10 min and declined to only 15% above control
levels by 60 min. From these results, the absence of a detectable
increase in cAMP after 3 and 4 h of incubation with hormones that
produce only a modest stimulation of lipolysis is therefore not
surprising. In contrast to the lack of correlation between cAMP levels
and lipolysis, glycerol production correlated well with the fraction of
protein kinase that was present in the active form in adipocytes
treated with various concentrations of a wide range of rapidly acting
lipolytic agonists (41). These findings suggest that cAMP may not be
uniformly distributed throughout adipocyte cytoplasm and that the
fractional activation of PKA may provide a better index of the
effective cAMP concentration than its concentration in total cell
water. In the intact adipocyte, PKA may be favorably situated with
respect to AC such that its activity is regulated by local changes in
cAMP concentration that may be too small to have a significant
influence on overall cellular levels. Earlier findings that GH+Dex did
not augment lipolytic responses to membrane-permeant analogs of cAMP
(14, 42) argue against the alternative possibility that GH+Dex enhances
reactions distal to cAMP.
If, indeed, the accelerated rate of lipolysis produced by GH+Dex and by
catecholamines results from increased production of cAMP, the
differences between the rates of onset and the magnitudes of their
lipolytic actions must reside in the manner in which they activate AC.
Catecholamines activate AC through the agency of
Gs, which couples their receptors to the enzyme.
AC activity can also be increased by relieving inhibition of its
basal activity, as evidenced by the profound stimulation of lipolysis
seen when Gi is inactivated with pertussis toxin
(21, 24). Furthermore, basal levels of cAMP increased by more than
3-fold in adipocytes of transgenic mice that were induced to express
Gi
2 antisense messenger RNA (43). The present findings
are consistent with the possibility that GH+Dex increase the activity
of AC by diminishing the inhibitory influence of
Gi. These effects may represent the loss of
intrinsic inhibitory input from Gi itself or from
an autocrine inhibitory factor(s) that acts through the agency of
Gi.
After treatment with GH+Dex, an appreciable amount of
Gi
2 was selectively associated with lower density
membrane particles than the Gi
2 in control cells or than
Gs
, suggesting that GH+Dex either shifts the
distribution of Gi
2 within the membrane or alters the
distribution of the intrinsic membrane proteins or submembranous
proteins with which it forms complexes. This phenomenon was most
dramatically revealed by the disappearance of some Gi
2
from the 16K pellet that contains the bulk of the plasma membranes and
its appearance in the 100K pellet that is enriched in endoplasmic
reticulum but also contains nearly 20% of the plasma membrane
fragments. The GH+Dex-related tendency of Gi
2 that
sedimented at 16K x g to migrate with lower density
membrane fragments on sucrose gradients suggests that fragments of
plasma membrane that sediment only at higher g forces may be
enriched in Gi
2 and thus account for these findings.
Alternatively, it is possible that GH+Dex caused some transfer of
Gi
2 from the plasma membrane to less dense intracellular
vesicles. Indeed, immunofluorescence microscopy of cultured rat and
mouse adipocytes indicates that Gi
2 is not confined to
the plasma membrane, and that a considerable amount of
Gi
2 is associated with internal structures (44, 45).
Clearly, the 16K fraction is not free of endoplasmic reticulum, nor is
the 100K fraction free of plasma membranes, and assignment of a
morphological location based upon centrifugal separation is not
warranted.
The finding that Gi
2 redistributes to less dense
membrane fragments after treatment with GH+Dex may help explain some
conflicting reports in the literature. Decreased responsiveness to
adenosine, whose actions are mediated by Gi, or
to the nonmetabolizable phenylisopropyl adenosine without a change in
the abundance of Gi in adipocyte plasma membranes
has been reported after treatment of sheep (46) or cattle (47) with GH.
The membrane fractions prepared from ovine adipocytes were pelleted at
42,000 x g (46), and the fraction prepared from bovine
adipose tissue was sedimented at 100,000 x g (47).
Membranes prepared by both of these techniques include all of the
Gi
2 that we would expect to find in the 16K pellet plus
most or all of the Gi
2 associated with the less dense
100K pellet. That is, these preparative procedures would have missed
the decrease in Gi
2 in the denser membranous components
when the 16K pellet is studied. Similarly, Roupas et al.
(22) reported that chronic treatment of ob/ob mice with a
diabetogenic analog of GH interfered with the functional relationship
between Gi and activation of phospholipase C.
They also found no change in the abundance of Gi
present in the adipocyte membranes that they sedimented at 28K x
g, although they detected a decrease in pertussis
toxin-catalyzed NAD ribosylation. Conversely, Doris et al.
(23) found an increase in Gi
2 in a 15K pellet prepared
from rat adipocytes 3 days after lowering circulating GH concentrations
by injection of antiserum to rat GH. The increase was prevented by
simultaneous treatment with ovine GH. These findings are in harmony
with the present findings and our initial report that hypophysectomy
increased and GH decreased pertussis toxin-catalyzed ADP ribosylation
in rat adipocytes (21)
Haraguchi and Rodbell (48) reported a similar shift of
Gi
, Gs
, AC, and
5'-nucleotidase from the plasma membrane fraction to lighter fractions
after stimulation of rat adipocytes with a supramaximal concentration
(10 µM) of isoproterenol. They attributed this
redistribution of membrane proteins to pinocytosis. Similar shifts of
-subunits of Gq and G11 to less
dense membranous components were reported as a prelude to
down-regulation in response to TRH (49) or acetylcholine (50). In this
regard, a high dose of TRH led first to the migration of
Gq to discrete patches within the plasma membrane
and subsequently to intracellular vesicles (51). The present
observations differ from those of Haraguchi and Rodbell, in that only
Gi
2 was shifted to lower density fractions, leaving the
distribution of Gs
, 5'-nucleotidase, and AC
unchanged. The possibility that the effects of GH+Dex on
Gi
2 as reported here might also reflect a
micropinocytotic process cannot be ruled out. Alternatively, G protein
-subunits are known to associate directly with tubulin (51, 52, 53, 54) and
coimmunoprecipitate with tubulin from detergent extracts of cerebral
cortical membranes (54). GH+Dex might selectively destabilize
protein:protein interactions within membranes and displace
Gi
2 from some complexes. Involvement of tubulin in the
GH+Dex-dependent redistribution of Gi
2 and the
stimulation of lipolysis is suggested by the findings that the
microtubule disrupter, colchicine, prevented both the shift in density
and the stimulation of lipolysis. Regardless of the mechanism, it
appears that treatment with GH+Dex changes the physical relationship of
Gi
2 to both Gs
and AC. That
change appears to be sufficient to decrease inhibitory input to AC and
relieve some restraint on cAMP production.
 |
Footnotes
|
|---|
1 This work was supported by NIDDK Grant DK-19392. Its contents are
solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily
represent the official views of the NIH. These studies were presented
to the University of Massachusetts Graduate School of Biomedical
Sciences by R.G.-C.Y. in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the Ph.D. degree. Preliminary reports of these studies were presented
at the Keystone Symposium, The Adipose Cell, Park City, Utah, 1994, and
the 76th Meeting of The Endocrine Society, Anaheim, California, 1994. 
2 Present address: Boston University School of Medicine, Boston
Medical Center, Evans 201, 88 East Newton Street, Boston, Massachusetts
02000. 
Received September 29, 1998.
 |
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