INSULIN RELEASE AND STEROID-HORMONE BINDING IN ISOLATED ISLETS OF LANGERHANS IN THE RAT: EFFECTS OF OVARIECTOMY

Ovariectomized rats showed a 30% increase in body weight and food intake over a 9 day period after operation. When pair-fed with normal controls, they had comparatively higher fasting serum levels of glucose and lower levels of insulin and progesterone than the normal rats. Treatment with oestradiol reversed these results. Insulin release from islets isolated from ovariectomized rats was significantly lower than from those of normal controls; the secretory responses were improved after administration of oestradiol to ovariectomized rats. Cytosol receptors for progesterone and oestradiol were measured in a 105 000 g supernatant fraction of islets from normal, ovariectomized and oestrogen-treated ovariectomized rats. Progesterone-receptor binding was dramatically reduced after ovariectomy but was restored to normal levels by oestradiol treatment of the rats. Oestradiol-receptor binding was not significantly affected by ovariectomy but was increased several fold by oestrogen treatment of ovariectomized rats. These results suggest that islets of Langerhans contain receptors for both progesterone and oestradiol, and that this receptor population is subject to change. Progesterone--but not oestradiol--receptor measurements could be correlated with alterations in the rates of secretion of insulin from islets. Oestrogen administration in vivo had profound effects on subsequent insulin release from islets, though this may have been mediated by way of an increase in the quantity of the progesterone receptor.