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ABSTRACT
Pancreatic rudiments from 14-day fetal rats were cultured whole for 8 days in medium containing 5·5 or 16·5 mmol glucose/l (1G or 3G medium). Rudiments grown in 3G medium (3G cells) contained more DNA and insulin than those grown in 1G medium (1G cells) but there was no alteration in the insulin/DNA ratio or the fractional area of the rudiment occupied by insulin-containing cells. Morphometric analysis of ultrastructure revealed that the β cells grown in 3G medium were smaller and had smaller nuclei than those grown in 1G medium. The size of exocrine cell nuclei in 1G or 3G medium was similar. Insulin granules occupied a greater proportion of the cytoplasmic volume in rudiments grown in 3G medium although the mean absolute volume of insulin granules per cell grown in 1G and 3G media was similar. Hence the residual cytoplasmic volume (cell—nucleus and granules) of 3G cells was less than that of 1G cells. Insulin granules from 3G cells had smaller granule sacs and cores than those from 1G cells. It is concluded that glucose stimulates the growth of rat fetal pancreas in vitro and has important effects on β cell ultrastructure.
J. Endocr. (1984) 100, 155–160
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SUMMARY
Insulin release was studied in vitro using pieces of pancreas from rabbits of between 24 days gestational age and 6 weeks postnatal age. When allowance was made for the fraction of pancreas which was endocrine, 16·5 mm-glucose caused increasing stimulation of insulin release as development advanced and 3·3 mm-glucose caused a similar rate of secretion at all ages. Secretion was not significantly influenced by insulin destruction in the incubation medium. Glucagon (5 μg/ml) did not stimulate insulin secretion from 24-day foetal pancreas but did so postnatally. Theophylline (1 mmol/l) stimulated insulin release at all ages and was equipotent on 24-day foetal pancreas in 3·3 or 16·5 mm-glucose. The stimulation of insulin release from 24-day foetal pancreas by 1 mm-theophylline occurred in the absence of extracellular glucose, pyruvate, fumarate and glutamate and in the presence of mannoheptulose and 2-deoxyglucose (each 3 mg/ml). Adrenaline (1 μmol/l) and diazoxide (250 μg/ml) abolished or attenuated the stimulation of insulin release by glucose, leucine plus arginine or theophylline from 24-day foetal, 1 day and 6 weeks postnatal pancreas. The stimulation of insulin release from 6-week-old pancreas by 1 mm-barium was blocked by adrenaline and diazoxide but the effect became less with increasing immaturity.
The experimental results illustrate some of the ways in which insulin secretion by the rabbit β cell changes as a function of development and draw attention to the importance of glucose and cyclic adenosine monophosphate in this process.
