Persistently enhanced sensitivity of pancreatic islets from ob/ob mice to pkc-stimulated insulin secretion. Chen, Neng-Guin, and Dale R. Romsos. Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1224
APStracts 3:0208E, 1996.
Islets from 2-wk-old ob/ob and lean littermate mice were cultured for 4 to 12 days and then perifused or statically incubated to identify early-onset differences in their regulation of insulin secretion. Islets from these young ob/ob and lean mice increased insulin secretion similarly in response to glucose (10 or 20 mM) whereas responsiveness to glucose plus acetylcholine (10 [mu]M) was greater in islets from ob/ob mice than lean mice. This phenotype-specific effect of acetylcholine was mimicked by phorbol-12-myristate-13 -acetate (PMA, 100 nM), a protein kinase C (PKC) agonist, whereas prior down-regulation of PKC abolished this phenotype-specific effect of acetylcholine. A high concentration of PMA (1 [mu]M) equally and substantially increased insulin secretion from islets of ob/ob and lean mice, suggesting an enhanced regulatory sensitivity rather than altered responsiveness of the PKC system in islets of ob/ob mice. Addition of BAY K8644, a Ca2+ channel agonist, to the perifusate enhanced acetylcholine-induced insulin secretion from islets of lean mice to attain the high rates observed by islets from ob/ob mice exposed to acetylcholine alone. We propose that acetylcholine-induced PKC regulation of insulin secretion is altered in islets from ob/ob mice, that this alteration may directly or indirectly involve Ca2+ channels, and that it persists even when islets are cultured for up to 12 days.

Received 13 August 1996; accepted in final form 13 September
1996.
APS Manuscript Number E390-6.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Endocrinol. Metab.).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 5 November 1996