Dexamethasone suppresses phospholipase C activation and insulin secretion from isolated rat islets

Dexamethasone inhibits insulin secretion from isolated islets. In the present experiments, possible underlying biochemical mechanisms responsible for defective secretion were explored. Dexamethasone (1 μmol/L) had no immediate deleterious effect on 15 mmol/L glucose-induced insulin release from perifused rat islets. However, a 3-hour preincubation period with 1 μmol/L dexamethasone resulted in parallel reductions in both the first (64%) and second phases (74%) of 15 mmol/L glucose-induced insulin secretion monitored during a dynamic perifusion. When measured after the perifusion, there were no differences in insulin content or in the capacity of control or dexamethasone-treated islets to use glucose. Dexamethasone (1 μmol/L) preexposure also reduced phorbol ester– and potassium-induced secretion. In additional experiments, islets were labeled for 3 hours with 3H-inositol in the presence or absence of 1 μmol/L dexamethasone. The steroid did not affect total 3H-inositol incorporation during the labeling period. However, the capacity of 15 mmol/L glucose, 30 mmol/L KCl, and 100 μmol/L carbachol to activate phospholipase C (PLC), monitored by the accumulation of labeled inositol phosphates, was significantly reduced in dexamethasone-pretreated islets. Inclusion of the nuclear glucocorticoid receptor antagonist RU486 (mifepristone, 10 μmol/L) abolished the adverse effects of dexamethasone on both glucose-induced inositol phosphate accumulation and insulin secretion. Quantitative Western blot analyses revealed that the islet contents of PLCδ1, PLCβ1, β2, β3, and protein kinase C α were unaffected by dexamethasone pretreatment. These findings demonstrate that dexamethasone pretreatment impairs insulin secretion via a genomic action and that impaired activation of the PLC/protein kinase C signaling system is involved in the evolution of its inhibitory effect on secretion.