Studies on biomodulators of glucocorticoid actions; the nature and the modes of actions of glucocorticoid potency amplifiers

Abstract

We have found many compounds that amplify the action of glucocorticoid without themselves having any glucocorticoid-like action and have proposed the concept of ‘Glucocorticoid Action Biomodulators’. These biomodulators consist of ‘Glucocorticoid Sensitivity Amplifiers’, which greatly amplify the action of glucocorticoid at doses of glucocorticoid that alone have minimal effects, and ‘Glucocorticoid Potency Amplifiers’, which markedly enhance the effect of glucocorticoid at doses that have maximal effects. Potent activators of protein kinase C, such as 1,2-racemic dioctanoylglycerol, 12- o-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate, and epidermal growth factor (EGF), markedly enhanced the induction of tyrosine aminotransferase and ornithine decarboxylase by dexamethasone in adrenalectomized rats in vivo and in primary cultures of adult rat hepatocytes in vitro. They amplified enzyme induction by even a large amount of dexamethasone that had a maximal effect, but had no effect in the absence of glucocorticoid. These modes of amplification show that these compounds are ‘Glucocorticoid Potency Amplifiers’. They amplified not only enzyme induction in liver but also growth inhibition by glucocorticoid of solid tumor L5178Y lymphoblasts. They specifically amplified the actions of glucocorticoids and did not amplify the actions of other steroids, such as 17-β estradiol, glucagon and insulin. The induction of tyrosine aminotransferase by glucocorticoid and its amplification by EGF were both inhibited by 1-(5-iso-quinoline-sulfonyl)-2-methyl-piperazine, an inhibitor of protein kinase C, and not by N-[2-(methylamino)-ethyl]-5-isoquinoline-sulfonamide, an inhibitor of cyclic nucleotide dependent protein kinases, suggesting that the induction and the amplification are mediated by protein kinase C.