The insulin secreting rat Rinm5F cells are often used to study the cytotoxic actions of interleukin-1 (IL-1) on pancreatic beta-cells. We demonstrate here that Rinm5F insulinoma cells express both type I and type II interleukin-1 receptor (IL-1R) mRNAs and gene products. IL-IR agonists, recombinant murine IL-1 alpha (rmIL-1 alpha, 10 ng/ml) and recombinant rat IL-1 beta (rrIL-1 beta, 100 pg/ml or 10 ng/ml) induce the upregulation of mRNA expression for both types of IL-1 receptors (IL-1Rs). This effect of rrIL-1 beta is antagonised by preincubation with recombinant human interleukin 1 receptor antagonist protein (rhIL-1ra, 5 mu g/ml). Furthermore, this rrIL-1 beta induced upregulation of IL-1R mRNAs is blocked by actinomycin D (7.5 mu g/ml), whereas cycloheximide (20 mu g/ml) has no effect. The phorbol ester PMA (20 nM) upregulates the expression of mRNAs both IL-1 receptors, whereas glucose (50 mM) upregulates the expression of the type I IL-1R mRNA only. Pretreatment of cells with pertussis toxin (100 ng/ml) partially blocks the rrIL-1 beta induced expression of mRNA for the type I and, to a lesser extent, the type II IL-1R. Incubation of the cells with rrIL-1 beta also induces a time-dependent expressionof c-fos, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumour necrosis factor alpha. (TNF-alpha) mRNAs. Binding studies with I-125-recombinant human IL-1 beta (I-125-rhIL-1 beta) indicate that IL-1R gene products, with the ligand binding characteristics of the type I IL-1R, are constitutively present on Rinm5F cells. Treatment with rrIL-1 beta (6h) increases the number of I-125-rhIL-1 beta binding sites on Rinm5F cells. We have also demonstrated that the number of type II IL-1R binding sites increases after induction with rrIL-1 beta (6h), by indirect immunofluorescence using a monoclonal antibody (ALVA 42) raised against the human type II IL-1R. Furthermore, we have sequenced the type II IL-1R cDNA in the rat insulinoma Rinm5F cells. The comparison of the amino acid sequence of the rat type II IL-1R with that of the mouse and human type II IL-1Rs shows 90% and 62% amino acid identity, respectively. The most important difference between the human and murine type II IL-1Rs, and this rat type II IL-1R cDNA, is an open reading frame coding for a six amino acid longer, strongly charged (QIKEMK), cytosolic domain. Another detected difference is a putative longer signal sequence in the rat type II IL-1R, as compared to human and murine cDNA.