Análise da expressão de isoformas de proteína quinase C em células cromafins da medula adrenal de ratos Wistar diabéticos tratados e não tratados com insulina

Abstract

The diabetes mellitus (DM) reduces the catecholamine (CAs) secretion of adrenal chromaffin cells, a critical pathophysiologic event that promotes the occurrence of serious hypoglycemia episodes, consequence of the disease treatment. Several papers report the participation of protein kinase C (PKC) on catecholamine synthesis signal pathways of adrenal chromaffin cells. The objectives of this work were to study the effect of DM on expression of PKC isoforms α, ε and ζ in rat chromaffin cells and to evaluate if the glicemic control revert the effect of the illness. Male Wistar rats with diabetes induced by streptozotocin were used. Three experimental groups were determined: Control (C), diabetic rats receiving saline solution (DS) and diabetic rats receiving insulin (DI). The analyses were made after 15 days of DM induction. Immunohistochemistry and western blotting techniques were done. The insulin therapy protocol was established after studying the feeding behavior and glycemic level variations during the whole 24h. The information made possible to establish the time of insulin applications. Several schemes of insulin treatments were tested to keep the diabetic rat as close as possible to normoglycemia path. The best results were found by using 1U at 1:00 PM and 4U at 7:00 PM of NPH insulin. After 15 days of treatment the acquired body weight was similar between C and DI rats, 37±3g and 43±3g, respectively. The DS rats emaciated 9±6g. The fasting glycemic levels were 74±1mg/dl, 93±6mg/dl and 471±23mg/dl to C, DI and DS rats, respectively. The insulin therapy reestablishes the plasmic levels of total cholesterol, c-LDL and c-VLDL on DI rats. The DM did not change the levels of c-HDL, triglycerides and frutosamine. The PKCα is the more expressed isoform in adrenal chromaffin cells, followed by ζ and ε. The DM reduced 39,5% the PKCα expression and, unlike, increased 74,2% the expression of PKCζ. The expression of PKCε was not affected by DM. The insulin treatment reverted the effect of DM on PKCα, the expression of PKCε remained unchanged and the expression of PKCζ remained higher than the control group (+32,6%). Studies of our laboratory show that the DM causes reduction on adrenal catecholamine content (21,1%), basal secretion (-24,3%) and catecholamine secretion stimulated by carbachol (-28,9%) and high K+ (-42,2%). The insulin therapy, in like manner as observed on PKCα, reverted the DM effect on adrenal catecholamine content. It was shown that PKCα participates on signal transduction pathway that stimulates the activity of tyrosine hydroxylase. Otherwise, the insulin treatment did not restore the secretory processes, suggesting that PKCζ could be involved in this process. There are strong evidences showing that PKCζ regulates the voltage-dependent delayed rectifier K (Kv) and its expression was not normalized by insulin therapy.