Effect of glucocorticoid administration in vivo on insulin binding in rat testis

We have studied the effects of adrenalectomy and glucocorticoid injections on insulin binding in membranes from rat testis and liver. Glucocorticoids were administered for 7 days to adrenalectomized rats at daily doses of 30 or 300 micrograms for dexamethasone and 100 or 1000 micrograms for prednisolone. Glucocorticoids, at the selected doses, were associated with 5- to 10-fold increases in basal insulin levels with no significant changes in glucose concentrations. As previously shown by other studies, down-regulation of insulin receptors was observed in liver membrane particularly at the higher dose of steroids. Such an effect was not found in the testis. By contrast, the number of high-affinity sites in the testis was slightly increased with the higher doses of dexamethasone and prednisolone. However, percent 125I-labelled insulin binding was not significantly changed after corticotherapy. These results are in accord with our previous studies and suggest that the testicular receptor for insulin is not affected by mild to moderate changes of insulin concentrations, but that it can be modulated by glucocorticoids through other mechanisms.