Diabetes, Vol 42, Issue 4 619-625, Copyright © 1993 by American Diabetes Association
Chemical cross-linking detects association of insulin receptors with four different class I human leukocyte antigen molecules on cell surfaces
J Reiland and M Edidin
Biology Department, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218.
Class I major histocompatibility complex molecules have been shown to be
physically associated with insulin receptor molecules on the surfaces of a
number of different cell types. The class I human leukocyte antigen (human
MHC) phenotype of B lymphoblasts correlates with the affinity of IR for
insulin. This correlation could be the result of association of some but
not other HLA molecules with IR, or could reflect differences in the way in
which association with an HLA molecule affects the function of IR. To
distinguish between these possibilities, this study isolated complexes of
four different class I HLA molecules with IR. Expression of some of these
molecules correlates with high-affinity IR, whereas expression of others
correlates with 5- to 10-fold lower affinity IR. This study found that
chemical cross-linking was necessary to stabilize HLA-IR complexes, and all
four of the class I HLA molecules studied, HLA-A1, HLA-A2, HLA-B5, and
HLA-B8, can form complexes with IR.