We studied the influence of exogenous phospholipase C (20 mU/ml) and melittin (25 micrograms/ml) on glucose-induced insulin release to further assess the role of Pl turnover as an important component in signal transduction in the B-cells. The secretory response to both substances was rapid and biphasic. However, phospholipase C did not, like melittin, elicit a secretory response in the absence of glucose. Phospholipase C elicited a half-maximal response at 4.5 mM and melittin at 2.0 mM glucose. Phospholipase C also enhanced the maximum amount of insulin release. Mannoheptulose markedly inhibited the secretory response of both melittin and phospholipase C in the presence of glucose, but the secretory effect of melittin, in the absence of glucose was not influenced. The results indicate that both melittin and phospholipase C elicit a secretory effect dependent on intact glucose metabolism. However, the variability of the effects of each agent on the glucose-dose related secretory response indicates that melittin may influence insulin release in a manner independent of nutrient metabolism and phospholipase C activity.

The amino acids L-leucine, L-isoleucine, and L-arginine require a subthreshold concentration of glucose to elicit insulin release and electrical activity from B-cells. There is evidence suggesting that protons couple the metabolism of glucose to the functional response of B-cells. In view of this, a permeable weak acid, sulfamerazine, was used to determine if the generation of intracellular protons could account for the permissive action of glucose. Addition of 10 mM sulfamerazine elicited constant spike activity only with 20 mM leucine. With 20 mM arginine or isoleucine, sulfamerazine induced silent depolarization no different from that caused by sulfamerazine alone. The pattern of the electrical activity of each amino acid plus 5.6 mM glucose or alpha-ketoisocaproic acid alone was qualitatively different; addition of sulfamerazine enhanced the electrical response. The permeable weak base NH4Cl at 20 mM immediately inhibited the electrical response to each amino acid plus glucose or alpha-ketoisocaproic acid alone. The effects of the permeable weak acid and base indicate that intracellular pH is important in maintaining amino acid-induced electrical activity. The permissive role of glucose may be due to provision of protons only with leucine.

Alterations in intracellular pH (pHi) generated by metabolism of glucose has been proposed to be a transduction device for controlling changes in K+ conductance in the plasma membrane of the B-cell leading to depolarization and cyclic variations in the membrane potential associated with spike activity. The influence of permeable weak acids or bases and amiloride inhibition of H+ extrusion by a Na:H exchanger on glucose-induced electrical activity has suggested that the electrical events are pH-sensitive. In order to document that these conditions alter pHi, we determined the influence of glucose, propionic acid, and NH4Cl, in the presence or absence of amiloride on pHi of rat islets using [14C] DMO. Glucose, 2.8 mmol/L decreased pHi by .09 unit compared to the absence of glucose (pHi = 7.08 +/- .01, M +/- SEM) and 16.7 mmol/L glucose reduced pHi by .19 unit. The glucose dose-related decrease in pHi yielded a half-maximal response at 4 mmol/L. The addition of 0.1 mmol/L amiloride had no influence on pHi without glucose and decreased pHi in the presence of 2.8 mmol/L glucose by .14 unit. The addition of 20 mmol/L propionic acid to 2.8 mmol/L glucose reduced pHi to 6.85 +/- .05, whereas 20 mmol/L NH4Cl increased pHi to 7.27 +/- .07. The addition of amiloride did not further lower the reduction in pHi elicited by 20 mmol/L propionic acid or 16.7 mmol/L glucose. These results suggest that the amiloride-sensitive Na:H exchanger plays a major role in regulation of pHi, but another modality for pHi regulation exists to compensate for inhibition of Na:H exchange under conditions of an acid load.

The influence of exogenous phospholipase C and melittin on electrical activity in islet B cells was determined to assess the extent to which polyphosphatidylinositol turnover serves to generate components that influence the electrical events in the plasma membrane. Phospholipase C hydrolyzes polyphosphatidylinositol to diacylglycerol and polyphosphoinositol, whereas melittin increases the susceptibility of phospholipids to phospholipases and increases the permeability of the membrane to ions. Application of both 20 mU/ml phospholipase C or 0.5 mg/ml melittin to 11.1 mM glucose elicited a time-dependent enhancement of glucose-induced electrical activity that stabilized after 10 min. Phospholipase C increased both the active phase fraction and the burst frequency, whereas melittin only increased the burst frequency. These results indicate that both compounds, which disrupt the phospholipid environment of the plasma membrane, play a role in modulating the oscillatory pattern of electrical activity in the B cell, although melittin is obviously not influencing the factors controlling the ionic events in the same manner as phospholipase C.

The possible role of protein kinase c in regulating the electrical events in the B-cell plasma membrane was examined by using the tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), a known activator of this enzyme. TPA has been found to enhance glucose- and sulfonylurea-induced insulin secretion with little or no effect on the fluxes of 86Rb+ or 45Ca2+ across the plasma membrane. TPA, 0.2 microM, did not influence the membrane potential from 0 to 5.6 mM glucose but increased by two- to threefold the fraction of the plateau phase of the oscillatory electrical activity induced by 7.0-11.1 mM glucose. This effect of TPA was completely blocked by 0.5 mM spermidine, an inhibitor of protein kinase c. However, spermidine had no influence on the electrical activity elicited by glucose alone. Glyburide, 10 nM, initiated slow depolarization and constant spike activity after about 18 and 25 min, respectively. TPA or 2.8 mM glucose reduced the lag period for glyburide to elicit an electrical response by about 75%. The duration of the spikes was increased two- to threefold by the presence of glucose or TPA with glyburide. There were also characteristic differences in the shape of the spikes under each experimental condition. Spermidine inhibited the influence of glucose, but not TPA, on the glyburide-induced electrical response. These results indicate that TPA may influence stimulant-induced electrical events via protein kinase c or by directly altering the ionic permeability of the plasma membrane.

Changes in pH alter the oscillatory pattern of glucose-induced electrical activity of mouse islet B cells, thereby supporting the hypothesis that changes in intracellular pH (pHi) resulting from glucose metabolism serve as a coupling factor between metabolic and cationic events. A decrease in pHi in the present of 11.1 mM glucose induces an increase in the duration of the active phase similar to that evoked by higher concentrations of glucose. Regulation of pHi appears to occur by Na:H and HCO3:Cl exchange in the plasma membrane, because inhibition by 0.1 mM amiloride and 0.5 mM 4,4'-diisothiocyano-2,2'-stilbene disulfonic acid (DIDS), respectively, induces constant spike activity in the presence of 11.1 mM glucose. If the pH coupling hypothesis is correct, then inhibition of the putative pH regulatory mechanisms and the subsequent decrease in pHi should elicit electrical activity in the presence of subthreshold glucose (less than 7.0 mM). Amiloride induced electrical activity (threshold) at 4.4 +/- 0.3 mM (mean +/- SEM) glucose. The threshold for DIDS was 5.4 +/- 0.2 glucose, whereas with glucose alone the threshold was achieved at 7.0 +/- 0.4 mM. Thus the generation of H+ by glucose may trigger changes in ionic conductances that induce the typical electrical response. Amiloride was found to elicit a secretory response at subthreshold glucose (4.2-7.0 mM) in perifused rat islets. This indicates that pH-induced changes in the ionic events in the B cells also play an important role in information transfer to the secretory complex.

The tumor-promoting phorbol ester, 12-0-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), enhances the secretory responses of pancreatic islet cells to glucose and a hypoglycemic sulfonylurea. The influence of TPA on the electrical activity induced by glucose or the sulfonylurea, glyburide, was assessed to determine whether TPA altered the conductances of the K+ and Ca2+ channels subserving depolarization and spike generation. TPA, 0.2 microM, did not alter the membrane potential obtained with 0-5.6 mM glucose. With 7.0, 8.4, and 11.0 mM glucose, TPA increased the duration of the active phase of oscillatory spike activity more than 2-fold. Upon withdrawal of glucose or glucose plus TPA, the cells hyperpolarized and spike activity ceased. In cells not exposed to TPA, the subsequent addition of 10 nM glyburide resulted in slow depolarization after 10-13 min and occurred at a rate of 1.2 +/- 0.2 mV/min. In cells preexposed to TPA, depolarization commenced by 4-8 min and occurred at a rate of 3.2 +/- 0.4 mV/min. The magnitude of depolarization was 15-20 mV with both conditions. Small amplitude spikes appeared during depolarization. After depolarization, the onset of high amplitude spikes appeared sooner in TPA-treated B-cells and occurred 2.6 times more frequently during the first 6.5 min after depolarization than in B-cells not exposed to TPA. A stable pattern of spike generation was achieved twice as fast in TPA-treated cells. TPA enhancement of glucose- and glyburide-induced spike activity suggests that the insulinotropic action of TPA is mediated by augmenting the influx of Ca2+ into the B-cell via voltage-sensitive Ca2+ channels.

The role of chemiosmotic lysis in the exocytotic release of insulin has been studied using perifused rat pancreatic islets of Langerhans. Established criteria for osmotic lysis of secretory granules requires proton translocation across the secretory granule membrane and the influx of a permeant anion. The consequent increase in granule osmolarity induces water entry and granule lysis. A proton gradient has been previously established to exist across the insulin secretory granule membrane. We have examined the sensitivity of insulin release to 1) hyperosmolar solutions, 2) replacement of medium Cl-, 3) replacement of medium Na+, and 4) anion transport inhibitors. The addition of 200-600 mM sucrose resulted in a 32-69% inhibition of insulin release due to 16.7 mM glucose. Replacement of Cl- by isethionate or SO4--reversibly inhibited glucose-induced insulin release by 47% and 78%, respectively. Na+ replacement by choline did not influence the secretory response. 4,4'-Diisothiocyano-2,2'-stilbene disulfonic acid (500 microM) and probenecid (10 mM) inhibited insulin release by 73% and 79%, respectively. These drugs are known to inhibit anion exchange in erythrocytes and may be influencing Cl- entry into the secretory granule fused to the plasma membrane by a similar mechanism. Furosemide inhibits NaKCl2 cotransport in erythrocytes, but had no influence on glucose-induced insulin release, suggesting that Cl- does not enter the secretory granule by this pathway. The primary criteria for the participation of a chemiosmotic mechanism subserving lysis of the insulin secretory granule are fulfilled by these results.

Although exogenous prostaglandins are recognized modulators of insulin secretion, the relationship between their endogenous synthesis and insulin secretion has not been rigorously studied in isolated adult rat islets. Using 3H-arachidonic acid as a tracer, we evaluated the effect of glucose stimulation upon the incorporation of this fatty acid into islet phospholipids and prostaglandins (separated by extraction and sequential silicic acid, thin-layer and paper chromatography). We observed that 3H-arachidonic acid was incorporated into islet phospholipids and prostaglandins under basal conditions (0.3 mg/ml glucose). Furthermore, exposure of islets to a stimulatory glucose concentration led to significant increases in the recovery of 3H-arachidonic acid-derived radioactivity in islet phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylserine, sphingomyelin, and phosphatidylinositol as well as into all of the measured prostaglandins (A2,B2, D2, E2, and F2α). The most marked increases in recovered radioactivity resulting from a stimulatory glucose concentration were in islet phosphatidylethanolamine and prostaglandin A2 (which we believe to be derived, in large part, from endogenously synthesized prostaglandin E2). These glucose-induced increases in 3H-arachidonic acid-derived radioactivity in both the phospholipid and the prostaglandin fractions were eliminated by the inhibition of phospholipase A2 activity with mepacrine or by the inhibition of cyclooxygenase activity with sodium salicylate. When islets prelabeled with 3H-arachidonic acid were exposed to a high glucose concentration in a perifusion system, there was a brisk extracellular release of radioactivity (presumably representing unidentified prostaglandins) that began within 1 min and that peaked slightly before the peak of the first phase of insulin secretion. Inhibition of either phospholipase A2 or of cyclooxygenase activity prevented the glucose-induced release of radioactivity and converted the pattern of insulin secretion from biphasic to monophasic. We conclude that the adult rat pancreatic islet rapidly incorporates arachidonic acid into phospholipids and prostaglandins and that this incorporation is markedly increased in the presence of a stimulatory glucose concentration. Studies with inhibitors of prostaglandin synthesis suggest that the endogenous synthesis of prostaglandins induced by glucose may contribute to the biphasic pattern of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion from the rat pancreatic islet.

Protons (H+) generated by glucose metabolism have been proposed to serve as a coupling factor between cationic and secretory events in the B-cell. We have examined the influence of alteration of extracellular or intracellular pH (pHo or pHi) on dynamic secretory responses of perfused rat islets to 4.2, 8.4, or 16.7 mM glucose. Reduction of pHo from 7.4 to 7.0 inhibited the secretory response to 16.7, but not 8.4 mM glucose, by 47% during the 30-min period following medium change. Increase of pHo from 7.4 to 7.8 had no influence on the secretory response to glucose. Alteration of pHo had no influence on basal insulin release in the presence of 4.2 mM glucose. Sulfamerazine (5 mM), a permeable weak acid, augmented the secretory response to 8.4 mM glucose by 60% but had no influence on the response to 16.7 mM glucose. In contrast, imidazole (10 mM), a permeable weak base, inhibited the secretory response to both 8.4 (62%) and 16.7 mM (72%) glucose. Another weak base, NH4Cl (20 mM), also inhibited the secretory response to 8.4 (61%) and 16.7 mM (68%) glucose. Alteration of pHi by sulfamerazine and imidazole did not alter basal insulin release in the presence of 4.2 mM glucose. A comparison of the present findings to those obtained for the influence of pH on glucose-induced electrical activity indicates that alteration of pHi, and not pHo, induces parallel effects on glucose-induced electrical and secretory events.

We have examined the influence of changes in pH on the oscillatory pattern of electrical activity (EA) in the beta-cell by altering medium pH (pHo) and using permeable weak buffers to alter intracellular pH (pHi). A decrease in pH in the presence of glucose elicited depolarization to the active phase and constant spike activity, whereas an increase in pH elicited a decrease in spike activity or silent hyperpolarization. On inhibition of HCO3:Cl antiport by addition of DIDS (4,4'-diisothiocyano-2,2'-stilbene disulfonic acid), probenecid, or withdrawal of medium HCO-3, there was an increase in the duration of the active phase. A similar result was obtained on the inhibition of Na:H antiport by the addition of amiloride or the reduction of medium [Na+]. The influence of H+ and glucose has been proposed to decrease K+ permeability (PK). However, the influence of pH on 86Rb+ efflux was most effective at subthreshold or 4.2 mM glucose; only a moderate decrease in PK occurred at 8.3 mM glucose, and no effect was obtained at 16.7 mM glucose. Alteration of pHi, and not pHo, induces similar effects on glucose-induced electrical and secretory events. There is a clear dissociation between the influence of inhibitors of the Na:H and HCO3:Cl antiporters on the electrical and secretory events. DIDS and amiloride increased glucose-induced EA, but markedly inhibited the secretory response to glucose. It is evident that pH modulates the electrical events and cationic fluxes and ultimately influences the transduction of information to the mechanisms controlling the secretory process in the beta-cell.

The weak base acridine orange (AO) has been shown to be accumulated by the insulin-containing secretory granules of cultured beta-cells in response to high glucose. Various lines of evidence indicate that this accumulation is due to a pH gradient. Thus ionophores such as monensin and nigericin abolish the glucose-induced accumulation, and a high concentration of the weak base, benzylamine, results in swelling of the granules. In the absence of glucose, ATP addition to digitonin-permeabilized cells also results in dye uptake. These data also suggest that a primary or secondary active accumulation mechanism for hydrogen ions exists across the granule membrane.

We have previously shown that the effect of glucose on electrical activity (EA) in islet B-cells is altered by modification of pH. The regulation of intracellular pH (pHi) in nerve and muscle cells is coupled to anion exchange. In the present study we have examined the involvement of HCO3:Cl exchange across the plasma membrane in the maintenance of glucose-induced EA in B-cells. 4,4′-diisothiocyanostilbene-2,2′ disulfonic acid (DIDS), an inhibitor of anion exchange, elicited a dose-related stimulation of EA in the presence of 11.1 mM glucose. The increase in the relative duration of the active phase (constant spike activity) was first observed at 20 μM DIDS, and a nearly maximal effect was obtained at 200 μM. The substitution of HCO3− by a Hepes buffer elicited constant spike activity. The application of 0.25 μM tributyltin, an electroneutral Cl:OH exchanger, also enhanced EA as indicated by an increase in the duration of the active phase. The influence of HCO3− withdrawal, DIDS, and tributyltin all elicited electrical events similar to that obtained by a decrease in pHi. Our results suggest that anion exchange may be involved in the regulation of electrical events in the B-cell by influencing pHi, as has been documented to occur in invertebrate nerve and muscle.

The widespread role of somatostatin (SRIF) as a mediator of function in the brain and gut has stimulated interest in it mechanism of action. We have examined the mode of action of SRIF in stimulus-secretion coupling in the pancreatic islet beta-cell to determine whether SRIF antagonizes the glucose-induced decrease in K+ permeability (PK). The influence of SRIF on 86Rb fluxes and insulin release in cultured rat islet cells, and also the electrical events recorded from cultured islets and microdissected mouse islets, was examined. In cultured islets, 100 ng/ml SRIF in the presence of 16.7 mM glucose inhibited the incidence of spike activity and evoked hyperpolarization. This effect was counteracted by 0.1 mM quinine and 20 mM tetraethylammonium (TEA), drugs that inhibit the Ca2+-sensitive or voltage-sensitive increase in PK, respectively. These agents also counteracted the inhibitory influence of SRIF on glucose-induced insulin release in cultured islets. SRIF disrupted the typical glucose-induced oscillatory pattern of electrical activity (burst activity) during continuous microelectrode recordings in mouse beta-cells, resulting in a transient 5mV hyperpolarization and a decrease in the frequency of generation of burst activity. The presence of 20 mm TEA prevented the influence of SRIF on the electrical activity. SRIF had no effect on the accumulation of 86Rb into islet cells obtained in the presence of 16.7 mM glucose. However, SRIF enhanced the rate of 86Rb efflux from cells exposed to glucose. SRIF-induced enhancement of 86Rb efflux was antagonized by TEA or quinine. These results indicate that SRIF may activate PK as its primary mode of action, an event that may be sufficient to reduce the accumulation of intracellular Ca2+ thereby disrupting glucose-induced stimulus-secretion coupling.