Metabolic and secretory response of tumoral-insulin producing cells to D-fructose and D-galactose

Energetic metabolism of glucose, mannose and galactose in glucose-starved rat insulinoma cells anchored on microcarrier beads. A phosphorus-31 NMR study

Insulin-secreting cells (RINm5F) have successfully been grown on a large scale on poly-L-lysine coated-polystyrene microcarriers, providing a high cell number in a restricted volume under conditions that respect the metabolic integrity of these anchorage-dependent cells. The energetic metabolism of the perfused cells has been followed non-invasively by phosphorus-31 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Glucose starvation induced a rapid decrease in nucleoside triphosphates (mainly ATP) pools, correlated with an increase in Pi level. The initial ATP level was rapidly recovered when the cells were refed with glucose or with mannose, but not with galactose, even after 2 h of perfusion. These differential effects of hexoses on energetic metabolism might be related to their various insulin-release actions on tumor islet cells.

Hexose metabolism in pancreatic islets. Metabolic and secretory responses to D-fructose

D-Fructose (3.3 to 33.0 mmol/liter) caused a concentration-related increase in insulin output from rat islets exposed to D-glucose (3.3 to 7.0 mmol/liter), such an increase not being more marked in mouse islets. The fructose-induced increment in insulin release, relative to that evoked by D-glucose, was two times higher in islets exposed to D-glucose than in islets stimulated by D-mannose, 2-ketoisocaproate, or nonnutrient secretagogs. Likewise, the metabolism of D-fructose in islet cells was significantly different in the absence or presence of D-glucose. Thus, the ketose was largely channeled into the pentose phosphate pathway in glucose-deprived, but not so in glucose-stimulated, islets. In both glucose-deprived and glucose-stimulated islets, however, the magnitude of the secretory response to D-fructose was commensurate with the increase in ATP production attributable to its catabolism. These findings indicate that the metabolic fate of hexoses--and, hence, their insulinotropic capacity--is not ruled solely at the level of their phosphorylation.

Interference of a nonmetabolized analogue of L-leucine with lipid metabolism in tumoral pancreatic islet cells

The nonmetabolized analogue of L-leucine, 2-aminobicyclo[2,2,1]heptane-2-carboxylic acid (BCH), was recently found to inhibit O2 uptake and insulin release from tumoral islet cells of the RINm5F line. BCH inhibited lipogenesis, stimulated lipolysis, and severely decreased the oxidation of endogenous [U-14C]palmitate in prelabelled RINm5F cells. D-Glucose exerted metabolic effects which were sometimes opposite to those caused by BCH and, within limits, protected the islet cells against the inhibitor action of BCH. Since BCH augments NH4+ production and facilitated the catabolism of 14C-labelled amino acids in the prelabelled cells, it is proposed that the unexpected inhibition of O2 uptake by BCH is mainly attributable to a decrease in the oxidation of endogenous fatty acids.