Innumerous data support the fact that insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) is the primary enzymatic mechanism for initiating and controlling cellular insulin degradation. Nevertheless, insulin degradation is unlikely to be the only cellular function of IDE, because it appears that some cellular effects of insulin are mediated by IDE as a regulatory protein. Insulin-degrading enzyme shows a significant correlation with various cellular functions, such as cellular growth and differentiation, and the expression of IDE is developmentally regulated. Besides insulin, other substrates are also degraded by IDE, including various growth-promoting peptides. It has also been shown that IDE enhances the binding of androgen to DNA in the nuclear compartment. It is also known that the androgen hormones have a stimulatory effect on prostate growth, and that estradiol stimulates uterine growth. To establish whether IDE is regulated by a cellular prostate/uterine growth stimulus, the present study assessed whether IDE was modified in quantity and activity during proliferative conditions (castration + testosterone in the male rat, or castration + estradiol or the proestrus phase of the estrous cycle in the female rat) and autolysis (castration or the metestrus phase of the estrous cycle) using cytosolic and nuclear fractions of rat prostate and cytosolic fractions of rat uterus. The activity and amount of IDE decreased in the cytosolic fraction with castration and during metestrus, and increased with testosterone or estradiol treatment and during proestrus. In the nuclear fraction, the quantity of the IDE followed the same pattern observed in the cytosolic fraction, although without degradative activity. The data presented here suggest that IDE may participate in prostatic and uterine growth and that the testosterone or estradiol and/or prostate and uterus insulin-like growth factors may be important factors for the expression and regulation of IDE in the prostate and uterus.

Insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) has been shown to enhance the binding of androgen and glucocorticoid receptors to DNA in the nuclear compartment. Glucocorticoids cause hyperglycaemia, peripheral resistance to insulin and compensatory hyperinsulinaemia. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of dexamethasone (D), testosterone (T) and dexamethasone plus testosterone (D + T) on the regulation of IDE and on the remodelling of rat ventral prostate after castration (C). Castration led to a marked reduction in prostate weight (PW). Body weight was significantly decreased in the castrated animals treated with dexamethasone, and the relative PW was 2.6-fold (±0.2) higher in the D group, 2.8-fold (±0.3) higher in the T group and 6.6-fold (±0.6) higher in the D + T group in comparison with the castrated rats. Ultrastructural alterations in the ventral prostate in response to androgen deprivation were restored after testosterone and dexamethasone plus testosterone treatments and partially restored with dexamethasone alone. The nuclear IDE protein level indicated a 4.3-fold (±0.4) increase in castrated rats treated with D + T when compared with castration alone. Whole-cell IDE protein levels increased approximately 1.5-fold (±0.1), 1.5-fold (±0.1) and 2.9-fold (±0.2) in the D, T and D + T groups, respectively, when compared with castration alone. In conclusion, the present study reports that dexamethasone-induced hyperinsulinaemic condition plus exogenous testosterone treatment leads to synergistic effects of insulin and testosterone in the prostatic growth and in the amount of IDE in the nucleus and whole epithelial cell.