Pancreatic beta cells cultured from individual preneoplastic foci in a multistage tumorigenesis pathway: a potentially general technique for isolating physiologically representative cell lines. Mol Cell Biol. 1993;13:4223-4232. [PMID: 8391634 DOI: 10.1128/mcb.13.7.4223]

Limited capacity for tolerization of CD4+ T cells specific for a pancreatic beta cell neo-antigen

Mice transgenic for SV40 T antigen (Tag) under control of the rat insulin promoter (RIP) develop two alternative immunological phenotypes: tolerance or autoimmunity towards Tag. We utilized the T cell receptor (TCR) genes expressed in a Tag-specific CD4+ cell from an autoimmune RIP-Tag mouse to generate two lines of TCR transgenic mice in which either 10% or 90% of peripheral T cells express the transgenic TCR. When cross-bred to the tolerant RIP1-Tag2 line, mice from the low frequency TCR line showed partial deletion of peripheral Tag-specific T cells and nonresponsiveness of those that remained. In contrast, crossbred mice in which transgenic T cells comprised a majority of the T cell population were nontolerant both in vivo and in vitro. Thus, tolerization of CD4+ T cells specific for a rare self-antigen may fail if too many autoreactive T cells develop.

The pancreatic beta-cell glucose sensor

Pancreatic beta cells secrete insulin in response to an increase in the level of blood glucose above 5 mM, which is characteristic of the fasting state. Glucose metabolism is essential for glucose sensing, and both the high-Km glucose transporter GLUT2 and the high-Km glucose phosphorylating enzyme glucokinase have been implicated in coupling insulin secretion to extracellular glucose levels. Experiments in isolated islets, immortalized beta-cell lines and transgenic animals, together with findings in humans with maturity-onset diabetes of the young, indicate that the primary beta-cell glucose sensor is glucokinase. Although the level of GLUT2 is frequently reduced in animal models of type II diabetes, GLUT2 does not limit glucose metabolism in beta cells and does not appear to regulate glucose induction of insulin secretion.

U-73122 inhibits carbachol-induced increases in [Ca2+]i, IP3, and insulin release in beta-TC3 cells

We studied the effects of the aminosteroid U-73122, a putative phospholipase C (PLC) inhibitor, on carbachol-induced increases in insulin release, [Ca2+]i, and IP3 in beta-TC3 cells. Carbachol (0.1-100 microM) increased [Ca2+]i and carbachol (0.1-1000 microM) increased insulin release dose-dependently. Carbachol (100 microM) also increased inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) production. U-73122 (2-12 microM) inhibited the effects of carbachol on [Ca2+]i and insulin release in a dose-dependent manner, and at the highest dose studied (12 microM) it abolished or greatly attenuated all three effects of carbachol. In contrast, U-73343 (12 microM), the analog of U-73122 that does not inhibit PLC, only inhibited the effect of carbachol on [Ca2+]i by 20%, and did not inhibit the effect of carbachol on insulin release. Since carbachol increases IP3, [Ca2+]i, and insulin release by activating PLC, these results suggested that U-73122 inhibits phospholipase C-dependent processes in beta-TC3 cells.

Immunological detection of prohormone convertases in two different proglucagon processing cell lines

The distribution of the prohormone convertases, PC1/3, PC2 and PC5/6, was determined by immunoblotting in two cell lines. In alpha TC1-6 cells, the proglucagon processing occurred according to the pancreatic A-cell type. In STC-1 cells, proglucagon was processed in a manner reminiscent of the intestinal L-cell type. PC1/3 was undetectable in both proglucagon processing cell lines whereas PC2 displayed a strong immunostaining in the alpha TC1-6 cells and was barely detectable in the STC-1 cells. PC5/6 was detected as a 70 kDa protein in both cell lines. These results suggest a possible role of PC2 in the processing of proglucagon into glucagon in the A-cells, whereas in L-cells it would require still undetermined endoproteases.

A scatter factor-like factor is produced by a metastatic variant of a rat bladder carcinoma cell line

The rat bladder carcinoma epithelial NBT-II cell line undergoes, in vitro, a morphological transition to a fibroblast-like state in the presence of different growth factors. We have selected, in vivo, a metastatic clone, designated M-NBT-II, which has a mesenchymal phenotype and secretes into the culture medium a factor able to dissociate epithelial clusters of NBT-II or MDCK cells. This factor was designated scatter factor-like (SFL) by analogy to the HGF/SF, which has the same dissociating effect in these two cell lines. Here, we show that SFL factor and HGF/SF are different factors: (i) no HGF/SF transcripts could be detected using either specific rat HGF/SF cDNA probes or PCR; (ii) blocking antibodies against rat HGF/SF do not inhibit the SFL activity; and (iii) crude culture medium or partially purified SFL factor-containing fractions do not induce MDCK tubulogenesis, a biological assay that is specific for HGF/SF activity in vitro. We report the partial purification of the SFL factor, based on ion exchange and reverse-phase chromatography. The results indicate that the M-NBT-II metastatic variant secretes a dissociating factor sharing some common biological properties with the HGF/SF, which suggests that the SFL factor is a member of the HGF/SF family and may be involved in tumor progression.