An evaluation of the cross-linking model for insulin-receptor interactions. Hammond, Bruce J., Jaak Tikerpae, and Geoffrey D. Smith. University of Cambridge, Dept. Clinical Biochemistry, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QR, UK.
APStracts 4:0043E, 1997.
_The cross-linking model for insulin-receptor interactions, where a single insulin molecule may form a cross-link between an insulin receptors [alpha]-subunits, has been expressed as a formal compartmental model and subjected to a systematic analysis, examining a number of predictions that have been made for this model. The kinetic parameters for the model were obtained by matching data obtained from insulin-receptor equilibrium binding studies and rates of formation of the insulin-receptor complex. This analytical study has allowed a clear description of the kinetics of the ligand -receptor complexes involved in such a mechanism. We conclude that the cross-linking model accounts for the anomaly of the 10-fold concentration difference in high and low affinity binding sites found when insulin binding is analysed by conventional means. However, the phenomenon of acceleration of dissociation of labelled ligand by unlabelled ligand cannot be accounted for as an intrinsic part of the model. We suggest that this phenomenon arises from the destabilisation of cross-link formation when a second insulin molecule binds. (Accepted for the Modeling in Physiology section)

Received 6 September 1996; accepted in final form 30 January
1997.
APS Manuscript Number E448-6.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Endocrinol. Metab.).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1997 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 20 February 1997