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Tyrosine kinase activity of insulin receptors from an insulin-resistant patient with leprechaunism

1987; Springer Science+Business Media; Volume: 30; Issue: 8 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/bf00277320

1432-0428

Alessandro Cama, Simeon I. Taylor,

Diabetes and associated disorders

Defects in insulin receptor function can impair the response of target cells to insulin. Previously we have described an insulin resistant patient (leprechaun/Ark-1) with qualitative abnormalities in insulin binding suggestive of a structural defect in her insulin receptors. In the present work, we have studied the tyrosine kinase activity associated with insulin receptors from cultured Epstein-Barr virus-transformed lymphocytes. In studies of insulin receptors from leprechaun/Ark-1, we observed that both the magnitude and the dose-dependency of insulin's effect to stimulate the tyrosine kinase activity were normal. This suggests that the defect causing this patient's insulin resistance is independent of the receptor-associated tyrosine kinase. In the course of these studies, we noted that an anti-receptor antiserum (B-d) had a markedly decreased ability to immunoprecipitate insulin receptors from leprechaun/Ark-1. This observation further supports our previous conclusion that the insulin receptor from leprechaun/Ark-1 is abnormal in structure. Moreover, it emphasizes the importance of choosing anti-receptor antisera which are equally effective at immunoprecipitating receptors from both patients and normal subjects when the anti-receptor antisera are employed as reagents in investigations of receptors from insulin-resistant patients.