Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P01275 (glucagon)
 26,492 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

In cultured rat hepatocytes, glucagon increased phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase mRNA transiently. Insulin, given at the maximal increase, enhanced the degradation by 3-fold. The levels of beta-actin mRNA and ribosomal RNA, which served as a control, remained unchanged. The transcriptional inhibitor, actinomycin D, or the serine/threonine phosphatase IIA inhibitor, okadaic acid, prevented the degradation of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase mRNA. This indicated that the degradation of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase mRNA requires the de novo synthesis of a bona fide destabilizing factor and/or active protein phosphatase. In vitro RNA degradation assays were developed in order to investigate whether insulin-treated cells contained enhanced ribonuclease activity. Fractionated cytosolic extracts were prepared by removing cell organelles by differential centrifugation and thereafter part of the cytosolic proteins by heat treatment. These extracts were incubated with exogenously added total RNA and the degradation of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase mRNA, beta-actin mRNA and 28S ribosomal RNA was studied. In this assay, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase mRNA and the otherwise stable beta-actin mRNA and ribosomal RNA were degraded 3-fold faster by extracts from insulin-treated, than from untreated, cells. The increase in RNase activity induced by insulin could be prevented by treatment of cultured rat hepatocytes with actinomycin D, indicating that ongoing gene transcription was required. The 'in vivo' specificity of the insulin effect on PCK mRNA degradation in cultured hepatocytes seemed to be lost in the in vitro assay in cytosolic extracts due to the disruption of the intracellular environment. Also in whole cell lysates, which were obtained by hypo-osmotic shock of the cells, and which contained the disrupted particulate and all soluble cellular components, PCK mRNA as well as beta-actin mRNA and ribosomal RNA, was degraded. The increase in ribonuclease activity due to insulin paralleled the insulin-induced acceleration of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase mRNA degradation in cultured hepatocytes, which might indicate a functional correlation.
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PMID:Parallel acceleration of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase mRNA degradation and increase in ribonuclease activity induced by insulin in cultured rat hepatocytes. 970 51

The process of evaluating the in vivo efficacy of non-peptidyl receptor antagonists in animal models is frequently complicated by failure of compounds displaying high affinity against the human receptors to show measurable affinity at the corresponding rodent receptors. In order to generate a suitable animal model in which to evaluate the in vivo activity of non-peptidyl glucagon receptor antagonists, we have utilized a direct targeting approach to replace the murine glucagon receptor with the human glucagon receptor gene by homologous recombination. Specific expression of the human glucagon receptor (GR) in the livers of transgenic mice was confirmed with an RNase protection assay, and the pharmacology of the human GRs expressed in the livers of these mice parallels that of human GR in a recombinant CHO cell line with respect to both binding of 125I-glucagon and the ability of glucagon to stimulate cAMP production. L-168,049, a non-peptidyl GR antagonist selective for the human GR shows a 3.5 fold higher affinity for liver membrane preparations of human GR expressing mice (IC50 = 172 +/- 98 nM) in the presence of MgCl2 in marked contrast to the measured affinity of the murine receptor (IC50 = 611 +/- 197 nM) for this non-peptidyl antagonist. The human receptors expressed are functional as measured by the ability of glucagon to stimulate cAMP production and the selectivity of this antagonist for the human receptor is further verified by its ability to block glucagon-stimulated cyclase activity with 5 fold higher potency (IC50 = 97.2 +/- 13.9 nM) than for the murine receptor (IC50 = 504 +/- 247 nM). Thus we have developed a novel animal model for evaluating GR antagonists in vivo. These mice offer the advantage that the regulatory sequences which direct tissue specific and temporal expression of the GR have been unaltered and thus expression of the human gene in these mice remains in the normal chromosomal context.
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PMID:Generation of mice expressing the human glucagon receptor with a direct replacement vector. 1062 76

High-carbohydrate feeding and triiodothyronine (T3) increase the abundance of acetyl-CoA carboxylase-alpha (ACC alpha) mRNA in avian hepatocytes, whereas starvation, glucagon, and medium-chain fatty acids decrease the abundance of ACC alpha mRNA. These changes in ACC alpha mRNA levels are mediated by alterations in the rate of transcription of the ACC alpha gene. In liver, ACC alpha transcription is initiated from two promoters, promoter 1 and promoter 2, resulting in transcripts that contain heterogeneity in their 5'-untranslated regions. Here, we investigated the role of promoter 1 and promoter 2 in mediating nutrient- and hormone-induced changes in ACC alpha mRNA abundance by measuring the level of transcripts expressed from promoter 1 and promoter 2 using a ribonuclease protection assay. The results indicated that both promoter 1 and promoter 2 were regulated by starvation/refeeding in livers of intact chicks and by T3, glucagon, and medium-chain fatty acids in chick embryo hepatocyte cultures and that alterations in the activity of promoter 2 accounted for a greater proportion of the changes in total ACC alpha mRNA abundance caused by nutrient and hormone treatment. Five DNase-hypersensitive sites were also identified between -500 and +1 bp relative to the transcription start site of promoter 2 in livers of intact chicks and in chick embryo hepatocyte cultures. In transient transfection analyses, this region of DNase hypersensitivity conferred regulation of transcription by T3, glucagon, and medium-chain fatty acids in chick embryo hepatocytes. Data from this study demonstrate that diet-induced changes in the activities of promoter 1 and promoter 2 in livers of intact chicks are mimicked in chick embryo hepatocyte cultures by manipulating the concentrations of T3, glucagon and medium-chain fatty acids in the culture medium and that cis-acting sequences mediating the effects of nutrients and hormones on promoter 2 activity are located immediately upstream of the transcription start site of this promoter.
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PMID:Thyroid hormone, glucagon, and medium-chain fatty acids regulate transcription initiated from promoter 1 and promoter 2 of the acetyl-CoA carboxylase-alpha gene in chick embryo hepatocytes. 1111 20

Laser capture microdissection (LCM) is a powerful method to isolate specific populations of cells for subsequent analysis such as gene expression profiling, for example, microarrays or ribonucleic (RNA)-Seq. This technique has been applied to frozen as well as formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens with variable outcomes regarding quality and quantity of extracted RNA. The goal of the study was to develop the methods to isolate high-quality RNA from islets of Langerhans and pancreatic duct glands (PDG) isolated by LCM. We report an optimized protocol for frozen sections to minimize RNA degradation and maximize recovery of expected transcripts from the samples using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) by adding RNase inhibitors at multiple steps during the experiment. This technique reproducibly delivered intact RNA (RIN values 6-7). Using quantitative RT-PCR, the expected profiles of insulin, glucagon, mucin6 (Muc6), and cytokeratin-19 (CK-19) mRNA in PDGs and pancreatic islets were detected. The described experimental protocol for frozen pancreas tissue might also be useful for other tissues with moderate to high levels of intrinsic ribonuclease (RNase) activity.
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PMID:Recovery of high-quality RNA from laser capture microdissected human and rodent pancreas. 2723 5


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