Constitutively active Akt1 expression in mouse pancreas requires S6 kinase 1 for insulinoma formation.

Factors that promote pancreatic beta cell growth and function are potential therapeutic targets for diabetes mellitus. In mice, genetic experiments suggest that signaling cascades initiated by insulin and IGFs positively regulate beta cell mass and insulin secretion. Akt and S6 kinase (S6K) family members are activated as part of these signaling cascades, but how the interplay between these proteins controls beta cell growth and function has not been determined. Here, we found that although transgenic mice overexpressing the constitutively active form of Akt1 under the rat insulin promoter (RIP-MyrAkt1 mice) had enlarged beta cells and high plasma insulin levels, leading to improved glucose tolerance, a substantial proportion of the mice developed insulinomas later in life, which caused decreased viability. This oncogenic transformation tightly correlated with nuclear exclusion of the tumor suppressor PTEN. To address the role of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) substrate S6K1 in the MyrAkt1-mediated phenotype, we crossed RIP-MyrAkt1 and S6K1-deficient mice. The resulting mice displayed reduced insulinemia and glycemia compared with RIP-MyrAkt1 mice due to a combined effect of improved insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity. Importantly, although the increase in beta cell size in RIP-MyrAkt1 mice was not affected by S6K1 deficiency, the hyperplastic transformation required S6K1. Our results therefore identify S6K1 as a critical element for MyrAkt1-induced tumor formation and suggest that it may represent a useful target for anticancer therapy downstream of mTOR.

Developmental aspects of adipose tissue in GH receptor and prolactin receptor gene disrupted mice: site-specific effects upon proliferation, differentiation and hormone sensitivity.

Direct metabolic effects of GH on adipose tissue are well established, but effects of prolactin (PRL) have been more controversial. Recent studies have demonstrated PRL receptors on adipocytes and effects of PRL on adipose tissue in vitro. The role of GH in adipocyte proliferation and differentiation is also controversial, since GH stimulates adipocyte differentiation in cell lines, whereas it stimulates proliferation but inhibits differentiation of adipocytes in primary cell culture. Using female gene disrupted (ko) mice, we showed that absence of PRL receptors (PRLRko) impaired development of both internal and s.c. adipose tissue, due to reduced numbers of adipocytes, an effect differing from that of reduced food intake, where cell volume is decreased. In contrast, GHRko mice exhibited major decreases in the number of internal adipocytes, whereas s.c. adipocyte numbers were increased, even though body weight was decreased by 40-50%. The changes in adipose tissue in PRLRko mice appeared to be entirely due to extrinsic factors since preadipocytes proliferated and differentiated in similar fashion to wild-type animals in vitro and their response to insulin and isoproterenol was similar to wild-type animals. This contrasted with GHRko mice, where s.c. adipocytes proliferated, differentiated, and responded to hormones in identical fashion to controls, whereas parametrial adipocytes exhibited markedly depressed proliferation and differentiation potential and failed to respond to insulin or noradrenaline. Our results provide in vivo evidence that both GH and PRL stimulate differentiation of adipocytes but that the effects of GH are site specific and induce intrinsic changes in the precursor population, which are retained in vitro.

Autocrine growth hormone production prevents apoptosis and inhibits differentiation in C2C12 myoblasts.

Although C2C12 myoblasts express low levels of growth hormone receptor (GHR), we failed to see any effect of exogenous growth hormone (GH) on cell proliferation or differentiation. C2C12 cells stably overexpressing (sixfold) more in GHR (C2C12(GHR)) grew faster than parental cells in media containing 2% serum, and proliferated while parental cells died, in the absence of serum. These effects were independent of exogenous GH but were inhibited by anti-GH and anti-insulin-like growth factor (anti-IGF-1) antibodies, consistent with a local production of GH, which we confirmed by RT-PCR and radioimmunoassay. In C2C12(GHR) cells, we observed an increased activation of the Janus kinase 2 (Jak2), signal transducers and activator of transcription 5 (Stat5), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and protein kinase B (Akt) upon acute GH stimulation. GHR overexpression also inhibited the formation of myotubes and the expression of markers for myoblast differentiation. Taken together, our data suggest that GH acts as an autocrine factor in C2C12 cells, to enhance proliferation and to inhibit differentiation.