Dexamethasone induction of an inhibitor of plasminogen activator in HTC hepatoma cells.

Incubation of HTC rat hepatoma cells with dexamethasone causes a rapid decrease in cellular plasminogen activator (PA) activity. Mixing experiments show the presence of an inhibitor of PA in dexamethasone-treated cells. This study investigates whether the decrease in PA activity is secondary to the induction of an inhibitor by glucocorticoids, to a decrease in the amount of PA, or to a combination of both mechanisms. PA and its inhibitor are dissociated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under non-reducing conditions, and both activities are then recovered and quantitated. HTC cells have two major forms of PA with Mr values of 110,000 and 64,000. Although PA activity in the unfractionated extracts from dexamethasone-treated cells is inhibited by 90% relative to control, there is no decrease in the total activity of sodium dodecyl sulfate-dissociated PA activity, suggesting that dexamethasone causes no decrease in the amount of the enzyme. PA inhibitor activity migrates as a single band of Mr = 50,000. The total activity of inhibitor increases in a time-dependent fashion, reaching a maximum of greater than 10 times control after a 4-6-h incubation with 0.1 microM dexamethasone. The induction of inhibitor requires both RNA and protein synthesis and shows a dependence on dexamethasone concentration identical to that for responses known to be mediated by glucocorticoid receptors. We conclude that dexamethasone inhibits PA activity by inducing the synthesis of an inhibitor rather than by decreasing the amount of PA.

Paradoxical effects of glucocorticoids on regulation of plasminogen activator activity. Mediation by glucocorticoid receptors.

Dexamethasone, a synthetic glucocorticoid, decreases the plasminogen activator (PA) activity of HTC rat hepatoma cells in tissue culture. Paradoxically, dexamethasone enhances the cyclic nucleotide stimulation of PA activity in these cells 2-4-fold. In this report, we investigated whether this paradoxical glucocorticoids as the induction of tyrosine aminotransferase activity. We compared the concentration-dependences for several classes of steroids, previously classified as full agonists, partial agonists, antagonists or inactive steroids with respect to induction of the transaminase, for both enhancement of cyclic nucleotide stimulation of PA activity and induction of tyrosine aminotransferase activity in parallel cultures. The full agonists dexamethasone and cortisol, the partial agonists deoxycorticosterone and 11 beta-hydroxyprogesterone, the inactive steroid tetrahydrocortisol, and the antagonist 17 alpha-methyltestosterone exhibited similar potencies with respect to both phenomena. Furthermore, when cells were incubated with both dexamethasone and 17 alpha-methyltestosterone, the latter blocked enhancement by dexamethasone in a concentration-dependent fashion. We conclude that glucocorticoid enhancement of cyclic nucleotide stimulation of PA activity is mediated by the same glucocorticoid receptors which mediate direct regulatory effects.

Role of plasminogen activator in the morphological alterations induced by derivatives of adenosine cyclic 3':5'-monophosphate in hepatoma tissue culture cells.

We have reported previously that derivatives of adenosine cyclic 3':5'-monophosphate dramatically stimulate the activity of plasminogen activator (PA), an arginine-specific serine protease, in HTC rat hepatoma cells. We report here that these derivatives also cause striking alterations in hepatoma tissue culture cell morphology. Because PA has been shown to alter cell morphology in other cell lines, we investigated whether the morphological changes induced by cyclic nucleotides were mediated by the stimulation of PA activity. Alterations in PA activity, measured by the plasminogen-dependent solubilization of 125I-labeled fibrin, and in cell morphology, detected by evaluation of cell flattening and process extension with phase-contrast microscopy, were assessed in the same cultures under various experimental conditions. Several lines of evidence clearly dissociate these two adenosine cyclic 3':5'-monophosphate-mediated phenomena. (a) The morphological changes precede increases in either cell-associated or extracellular PA activity. (b) Upon removal of the effectors, the morphological effects are completely reversed at a time when PA activity is still considerably elevated. (c) when protein synthesis is inhibited by the addition of cycloheximide, the stimulation of PA activity by cyclic nucleotides is blocked completely, whereas the induction of morphological alterations still occurs. (d) An exogenous PA, urokinase, does not elicit the characteristic changes in cell shape. We conclude that the morphological alterations induced by adenosine cyclic 3':5'-monophosphate derivatives in HTC cells are not mediated by the stimulation of PA activity and that these two membrane-associated properties are regulated independently.

Hormonal regulation of plasminogen activator in rat hepatoma cells.

Plasminogen activators are membrane-associated, arginine-specific serine proteases which convert the inactive plasma zymogen plasminogen to plasmin, an active, broad-spectrum serine protease. Plasmin, the major fibrinolytic enzyme in blood, also participates in a number of physiologic functions involving protein processing and tissue remodelling, and may play an important role in tumor invasion and metastasis. In HTC rat hepatoma cells in tissue culture, glucocorticoids rapidly decrease plasminogen activator (PA) activity. We have shown that this decrease is mediated by induction of a soluble inhibitor of PA activity rather than modulation of the amount of PA. The hormonally-induced inhibitor is a cellular product which specifically inhibits PA but not plasmin. We have isolated variant lines of HTC cells which are selectively resistant to the glucocorticoid inhibition of PA but retain other glucocorticoid responses. These variants lack the hormonally-induced inhibitor; PA from these variants is fully sensitive to inhibition by inhibitor from steroid-treated wild-type cells. Cyclic nucleotides dramatically stimulate PA activity in HTC cells in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. Paradoxically, glucocorticoids further enhance this stimulation. Thus glucocorticoids exert two separate and opposite effects on PA activity. The availability of glucocorticoid-resistant variant cell lines, together with the unique regulatory interactions of steroids and cyclic nucleotides, make HTC cells a useful experimental system in which to study the multihormonal regulation of plasminogen activator.

Paradoxical effects of glucocorticoids on regulation of plasminogen activator activity of rat hepatoma cells.

Incubation of rat hepatoma cells with cAMP derivatives stimulates cell-associated plasminogen activator activity 8- to 22-fold and extracellular plasminogen activator activity 30- to 1300-fold. This time- and concentration-dependent increase is enhanced by phosphodiesterase inhibitors. Dexamethasone, a synthetic glucocorticoid, decreases the plasminogen activator activity of these cells, probably through induction of an inhibitor. Paradoxically, dexamethasone, added simultaneously with cAMP derivatives causes a further 4-fold enhancement of the cAMP-mediated stimulation of plasminogen activator activity. Dexamethasone also alters the time course of cAMP-mediated enhancement of plasminogen activator activity: increased protease activity is detected at 4 hr in cells incubated with 8-bromoadenosine-3':5'-cyclic monophosphoric acid and 1-methyl-3-isobutylxanthine but not until 12 hr in cells incubated with dexamethasone as well. Glucocorticoids thus exert two separate and opposite effects on plasminogen activator activity: induction of an inhibitor and amplification of cyclic nucleotide action. Although permissive and synergistic effects of dexamethasone on cyclic nucleotide action have been reported previously, glucocorticoid regulation of plasminogen activator activity is unique in that the amplification of cyclic nucleotide effects by dexamethasone opposes its regulatory action toward a specific enzyme.