The stimulation of insulin biosynthesis in the pancreatic insulinoma cell line RIN5-AH by growth hormone (GH) is initiated by GH binding to specific receptors. To determine whether the recently cloned rat hepatic GH receptor is able to mediate the insulinotropic effect of GH, we have transfected a GH receptor cDNA under the transcriptional control of the human metallothionein promoter into RIN5-AH cells. The transfected cells were found to exhibit an increased expression of GH receptors and to contain a specific GH receptor mRNA that was not expressed in the parent cell line. The expression of GH receptors in one clone (1.24) selected for detailed analysis was increased 2.6-fold compared to untransfected cells. The increased GH receptor expression was accompanied by an increased responsiveness to GH. Thus, the maximal GH-stimulated increase of insulin biosynthesis was 4.1-fold in 1.24 cells compared to 1.9-fold in the nontransfected RIN5-AH cells. The expression of the transfected receptor was stimulated 1.6- and 2.3-fold when cells were cultured in the presence of 25 or 50 microM Zn2+, respectively. The increased expression of the GH receptor by Zn2+ was associated with an increased magnitude of GH-stimulated insulin biosynthesis. A close stoichiometric relationship between the level of receptor expression and the level of GH-stimulated insulin biosynthesis was observed. We conclude from these results that the hepatic GH receptor is able to mediate the effect of GH on insulin biosynthesis in RIN5-AH cells.