Insulin binding on MOLT 4 cells: effect of a sulfonylurea

Cultured neoplastic cell lines are widely considered an adequate model for insulin receptor studies. In this work the insulin receptor of a well-known continuous T-cell line (MOLT 4) was characterized. These cells showed specific insulin receptor with binding properties quite similar to those of other lymphoblastoid cells. Therefore, we used MOLT 4 receptor to evaluate the effect of the sulfonylurea glipizide on insulin binding. After a 24-hour preliminary incubation of cells with glipizide, we found a 44% increase of insulin receptor binding apparently due to an increase of insulin binding sites.