V. Leclercq-Meyer

Interference of glycogenolysis with glycolysis in pancreatic islets from glucose-infused rats.

When pancreatic islets isolated from rats infused for 48-72 h with a hypertonic solution of D-glucose were incubated for two successive periods of 10 min each, in the presence first of 16.7 mM and then 2.8 mM D-[U-14C]glucose, the total output of L-lactic acid during the second incubation was as high as that recorded during the first incubation, while the specific radioactivity of L-lactic acid dramatically decreased during the second incubation. In islets from normoglycemic rats, however, the total output of L-lactic acid decreased and its specific radioactivity modestly increased as the concentration of D-glucose was lowered from 16.7 to 2.8 mM. Such contrasting results indicate that in the glycogen-rich islets isolated from glucose-infused rats, the fall in extracellular D-glucose concentration was not accompanied by a parallel fall in glycolytic flux, the decreased utilization of exogenous D-[U-14C]glucose coinciding with stimulation of glycogenolysis. This unusual metabolic situation also coincided with a transient and paradoxical stimulation of insulin release in response to the decrease in extracellular D-glucose concentration. It is proposed, therefore, that the interference of glycogenolysis with glycolysis in pancreatic islets from glucose-infused rats participates in the paradoxical changes in insulin output which represent a typical feature of B-cell glucotoxicity.

Impairment of glycerol phosphate shuttle in islets from rats with diabetes induced by neonatal streptozocin

In islets from adult rats injected with streptozocin during the neonatal period, the oxidative and secretory responses to D-glucose are more severely affected than those evoked by L-leucine. A possible explanation for such a preferential defect was sought by comparing the rate of aerobic glycolysis, taken as the sum of D-[3,4-14C]glucose conversion to labeled CO2, pyruvate, and amino acid, with the total glycolytic flux, as judged from the conversion of D-[5-3H]glucose to 3H2O. A preferential impairment of aerobic relative to total glycolysis was found in islets from diabetic rats incubated at either low or high D-glucose concentration. This coincided in islet mitochondria of diabetic rats with a severe decrease in both the basal (no-Ca2+) generation of 3H2O from L-[2-3H]glycerol-3-phosphate and the Ca2+-induced increment in [3H]glycerophosphate detritiation. The mitochondria of diabetic rats were also less efficient than those of control animals in generating 14CO2 from [1-14C]-2-ketoglutarate. The diabetes-induced alteration of 2-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase in islet mitochondria was less marked, however, than that of the FAD-linked glycerophosphate dehydrogenase and was not associated with any change in responsiveness to Ca2+. Sonicated islet mitochondria of diabetic rats displayed normal to slightly elevated glutamate dehydrogenase activity. We propose, therefore, that the preferential impairment of the oxidative and secretory responses of islet cells to D-glucose in this experimental model of diabetes may be at least partly attributable to an altered transfer of reducing equivalents into the mitochondria as mediated by the glycerol phosphate shuttle.

Stimulus-secretion coupling of arginine-induced insulin release. Functional response of islets to l-arginine and l-ornithine

L-Arginine and L-ornithine stimulate insulin release from pancreatic islets exposed to D-glucose. This coincides with an increased outflow of 86Rb and 45Ca from prelabelled islets and an increased net uptake of 45Ca by the islets. In the presence of D-glucose, L-lysine stimulates insulin secretion to the same extent as L-arginine or L-ornithine, but the hormonal release is not further enhanced by combinations of these cationic amino acids. L-Arginine or L-ornithine failed to enhance insulin release evoked by either L-leucine or 2-ketoisocaproate. The inhibitor of ornithine decarboxylase D,L-alpha-difluoromethyl ornithine failed to affect the metabolism and insulinotropic action of D-glucose in pancreatic islets, and only caused a partial inhibition of the secretory response to either L-arginine or L-ornithine. The latter amino acids inhibited modestly but significantly D-glucose utilization and oxidation by pancreatic islets. These and complementary findings suggest that the secretory response to L-arginine and L-ornithine is not attributable to any major change in the overall oxidative catabolism of nutrients, but involves mainly a biophysical component, such as the depolarization of the plasma membrane by these cationic amino acids.

Perturbation of pancreatic islet function in glucose-infused rats

The secretory behavior of insulin- and glucagon-producing cells was found to be perturbed in isolated perfused pancreases removed from rats infused with hypertonic solutions of glucose for 48 hours. The anomalies included a high basal release of insulin and a paradoxical increase in insulin output and decrease in glucagon release in response to a fall in D-glucose concentration. Likewise, in isolated islets prepared from the glucose-infused rats, L-arginine or theophylline stimulated insulin release at a low ambient concentration of D-glucose, at variance with the situation found in islets removed from normal rats. These secretory perturbations could not be attributed to any obvious defect in either the transport of D-glucose into islet cells or its further utilization and oxidation, but coincided with the abnormal accumulation of glycogen in the B-cell. It is proposed that the latter anomaly may play a role in the altered dynamics of insulin release found in animals or patients with long-term hyperglycemia.

Failure of human and mouse leptin to affect insulin, glucagon and somatostatin secretion by the perfused rat pancreas at physiological glucose concentration

In isolated perfused pancreas from normal rats, a rise in d-glucose concentration from 3.3 to 8.3 mM provoked a rapid phasic stimulation of both insulin and somatostatin secretion and rapid fall in glucagon output, these changes being reversed when the concentration of the hexose was brought back to its initial low level. In the presence of 8.3 mM d-glucose, the administration of either human or mouse leptin (10 nM in both cases) for 15 min failed to affect significantly the perfusion pressure and release of the three hormones. It is concluded that leptin does not exert any major immediate and direct effect upon pancreatic insulin, glucagon and somatostatin secretion, at least at the physiological concentration of d-glucose normally found in the plasma of fed rats.

The Role of Calcium in Glucagon Release: Studies with Verapamil

The role of calcium transport into the pancreatic A2-cell in release of glucagon was studied in the perfused in vitro rat pancreas exposed to the organic calcium–antagonist verapamil (10 and 20 μM). As judged by the inhibitory effect of verapamil, a sufficient influx of calcium was required for glucagon release to be stimulated by either arginine (10 mM) or a lowering of the glucose concentration from 16.6 to 3.3 mM. However, such was not the case for glucose to inhibit the release of glucagon or when the A2-cell was established in a stimulated state during prolonged exposure to a low, 3.3 mM, glucose concentration. These findings suggest that the role of inwardly directed transport of calcium in the secretory process of the A2-cell is of a complex nature, being dependent on the type of stimulus employed (arginine or glucose) and, in the case of glucose, on the static or dynamic state of the cell. The intimate mechanisms by which calcium exerts such complex effects on the secretory process in the A2-cell remain to be elucidated.

Stimulation of insulin and somatostatin release by two meglitinide analogs.

Several meglitinide analogs are currently under investigation as potential insulinotropic tools for the treatment of noninsulin-dependent diabetes. The present study aimed to further insight into the effect of these agents on the secretion of insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin by the isolated perfused pancreas. Both repaglinide (0.01 μM) and A-4166 (1.0 μM) stimulated insulin and somatostatin release, but failed to affect glucagon output, from pancreases exposed to 5.6 mMd-glucose. The secretory response of the B- and D-cells to the hypoglycemic agents was much less marked than that caused by a rise in hexose concentration from 5.6–16.7 mM. Although repaglinide was tested at a concentration a hundred times lower than that of A-4166, the drug-induced increase in both insulin and somatostatin secretion persisted for a longer time after exposure to repaglinide, than to A-4166. The relevance of these findings to the use of meglitinide analogs as antidiabetic agents is double. First, they document that these drugs, although enhancing both insulin and somatostatin release, do not provoke an undesirable stimulation of glucagon secretion. Second, they indicate that even at a very low concentration, repaglinide provokes a protracted insulinotropic action, thus suggesting that the reversibility of the secretory response to this or other meglitinide analogs represents an intrinsic molecular attribute, unrelated to either their biological potency or the relative extent of B-cell stimulation.

The Role of Calcium in Glucagon Release

The interrelationship between arginine and calcium in glucagon release was studied using the in vitro perfused rat pancreas. In the presence of a normal 2 mM calcium concentration, 10 mM arginine provoked biphasic glucagon release, the amplitude of such a response being inversely related to the glucose concentration of the perfusate. At the lowest 3.3 mM glucose concentration, and after prolonged (40 min) as well as short (10 min) periods of calcium deprivation, arginine-induced glucagon release was inhibited. These results clearly indicate that calcium is necessary for either the recognition or effectiveness of arginine as a stimulus to the alpha-cell. Taking into account this, as well as other data presently available in the literature, it is suggested that calcium plays a versatile role - permissive, inhibitory and stimulatory - in glucagon secretion. The intimate mechanisms by which calcium exerts such versatile actions in the alpha-cell remain to be elucidated.

A combined radioimmunoassay for glucagon and insulin

SummaryA combined radioimmunoassay for glucagon and insulin in biological fluids is presented. It is based on the use of 131I-glucagon and 125I-insulin tracers and a charcoal-dextran separation procedure. Standard curves, sample determinations and recovery studies gave comparable results whether in the combined or individual assay for glucagon and insulin. The combined assay, especially if supported by a decoding and calculating computer program, offers the advantages that it requires a smaller volume of the material to be sampled, is more economical and less timeconsuming.

Preservation of the anomeric specificity of glucose-induced insulin release in partially pancreatectomized rats

SummaryAttenuation, suppression or even inversion of the normal preference of glucose-stimulated insulin release for the α-anomer of the hexose was recently proposed to represent a feature of Beta-cell glucotoxicity in Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus. Since recent reports emphasize the possible significance of Beta-cell secretory hyperactivity as a determinant of such a glucotoxicity, the anomeric specificity of glucose-induced insulin release was examined in normoglycaemic partially pancreatectomized rats. About 80–85% of the pancreas was removed, the animals then being given sucrose via their drinking water up to the time of killing. In these animals, α-D-glucose was more efficient than β-D-glucose in stimulating insulin release from the perfused pancreas, the α/β ratio in insulin output not being significantly different from that found in control rats. It is concluded, therefore, that the anomeric malaise, taken as a manifestation of Beta-cell glucotoxicity, it attributable to hyperglycaemia rather than to Beta-cell secretory hyperactivity.