This study investigated whether increased glucagon levels, caused by the short-term administration of glucagon, lead to an increase in gene expression of the insulin receptor (InsR) in calf hepatocytes cultured in vitro. After 72 hrs of culturing, glucagon was added to calf hepatocytes at a five different concentrations of 0, 1, 10, 100 and 1000 nM. InsR mRNA expression was determined by internally controlled reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. No changes in InsR mRNA expression (InsR/β-actin gray scale) were detected in hepatocytes treated with glucagon compared with the control group and there were no significant differences between the different concentrations. In conclusion, short-term administration of glucagon did not directly influence the gene expression of InsR in primary cultured calf hepatocytes.

Key words: Calf hepatocyte, Insulin receptor, Gene expression, Glucagon