Spontaneous hyperglycemia and-or obesity in laboratory rodents: an example of the possible usefulness of animal disease models with both genetic and environmental components

Adaptations of alpha2- and beta-cells of rat and mouse pancreatic islets to starvation, to refeeding after starvation, and to obesity

The effects of starvation and refeeding and of obesity on pancreatic alpha2- and beta-cell responses to glucose or tolbutamide were studied with the isolated rat or mouse pancreas perfused with an amino acid mixture in the presence and absence of glucose. It was observed that the physiological adaptation to a regimen of fasting and realimentation and to obesity differed greatly in the two types of endocrine cells. Whereas beta-cells of rats showed a dramatic reduction of glucose- and tolbutamide-stimulated insulin release during starvation that was reversed by refeeding, alpha2-cells preserved their response to stimulators and inhibitors during this experimental manipulation. Amino acid stimulation of glucagon release occurred equally well with the pancreas from fed and starved rats and was suppressed efficiently by glucose and tolbutamide in both nutritional states. Surprisingly, the rate of onset of glucose suppression of alpha2-cells was significantly higher in the fasted than in the fed state. This glucose hypersensitivity was apparent 2 d after after food deprivation and had disappeared again on the 2nd d of refeeding. In the pancreas from animals starved for 3 d, glucose and tolbutamide suppression of alpha2-cells took place in the absence of demonstrable changes of insulin release. In the isolated perfused pancreas taken from the hyperphagic obese hyperglycemic mouse (C57 Black/6J; ob/ob), the observed rate of insulin secretion as a result of a combined stimulus of amino acids and glucose and of glucagon release stimulated by amino acids was about four times higher than achieved by the pancreas of lean controls. However, glucose was unable to suppress the alpha2-cells in the pancreas of obese animals, in spite of the hypersection of the beta-cells, again in contrast to the alpha2-cells of controls that were readily inhibited by glucose. These data imply that the acute suppression of alpha2-cells by glucose is largely independent of a concomitant surge of extracellular insulin levels and that the adaptation of the islet organ to starvation leads to decreased glucose sensitivity of beta-cells, which contrasts with an improved glucose responsiveness of alpha2-cells. However, hyperphagia, which is assumed to be the primary abnormality in the ob/ob mouse, leads to overproduction of insulin and glucagon by the pancreas while greatly reducing the alpha2-cell sensitivity to glucose. An attempt is made to incorporate these data on starvation, refeeding, and obesity, as well as previous results with experimental diabetes, in a comprehensive picture describing a regulative principle underlying the glucose responsivness of alpha2-cells.

Resistance to hepatic action of vasopressin in genetically obese (ob/ob) mice

1. Fatty acid synthesis, measured in the perfused liver of genetically obese (ob/ob) mice with 3H2O or [14C]actate, did not show the inhibition by [8-arginine]vasopressin (antidiuretic hormone) that is observed in livers from normal mice. 2. Hepatic glycogen breakdown in obese mice was stimuulated by vasopressin, but not as extensively as in lean mice. 3. If obese mice received a restricted amount of food, then fatty acid synthesis still did not respond to vasopressin, but glycogen breakdown was fully stimulated. 4. Cholesterol synthesis was not inhibited by vasopressin in livers from obese mice. 5. Vasopressin inhibited fatty acid synthesis in intact lean mice, but not in obese animals. 6. These results suggest that genetic obesity could be due to an inborn error within the mechanisms (other than adenylate cyclase) which mediate responses to extracellular effectors.

An anomaly of insulin removal in perfused livers of obese-hyperglycemic (ob/ob) mice

Obese-hyperglycemic (ob/ob) mice have the interesting feature of being hyperinsulinemic, thus having some characteristics in common with human maturity-onset diabetics. As the cause of hyperinsulinemia in these mice is not established, and as the liver is known to play a role in determining the amount of hormone that reaches the periphery, it was hypothesized that an anomaly in the hepatic handling of insulin might prevail in obese-hyperglycemic mice. Immunoreactive insulin was therefore measured in the perfusate before and after a single passage through perfused livers of lean and ob/ob mice, permitting. It was found that the removal of insulin by livers of lean mice increased with increasing concentrations of the hormone in the portal vein. The removal process had a limited capacity, however, and as a consequence the percentage of hormone removed by the liver actually decreased when portal insulin concentrations increased. Insulin removal by livers of ob/ob mice had qualitatively the same characteristics but was considerably less efficient than in normal livers. Due to this, more insulin was found in the perfusate leaving the liver of ob/9b mice than in that of controls, at any insulin concentration tested. These observations suggest that in obese-hyperglycemic mice more of the hormone may reach the periphery and thus contribute to hyperinsulinemia. The present study further suggests that the anomaly of insulin removal observed in perfused livers of ob/ob mice might be secondary to hyperinsulinemia, since it was partly corrected upon artificially decreasing the circulating levels of insulin (e.g. via a fast, anti-insulin serum, or streptozotocin treatment) before perfusion. The characteristics of hepatic insulin removal reported in this study, as well as the differences observed between livers of lean and ob/ob mice, may reflect changes in membrane insulin receptors and/or in processes responsible for the degradation of the horomone.

Plasma lipoproteins and the synthesis and turnover of plasma triglyceride in normal and genetically obese mice

1. Lipoproteins in the plasma of mice were characterized by agarose-gel chromatography and polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis: genetically obese (ob/ob) mice exhibited hyperlipoproteinaemia (compared with lean mice), largely owing to an increase in the concentration of cholesterol in high-density lipoprotein. Plasma concentrations of triglyceride and phospholipid were not markedly increased in genetically obese mice. 2. The formation of glycerolipids in liver and plasma was investigated with (14)C-labelled precursors. The synthesis of hepatic triglyceride and phospholipid from glucose or palmitate was enhanced in ob/ob mice, compared with lean mice. The rate of entry of triglyceride into plasma, calculated from the time-course of incorporation of (14)C from [(14)C]palmitate into plasma triglyceride, was increased in ob/ob mice (0.5mumol of fatty acid/min, compared with 0.2 in lean mice). 3. The removal from plasma of murine lipoprotein triglyceride-[(14)C]fatty acid was increased in ob/ob mice (half-time 2.2min, compared with 7.2min in lean mice). Similar results were obtained with an injected lipid emulsion (Intralipid). 4. From these measurements, estimates of the rates of turnover of plasma triglyceride in mice (fed on a mixed diet, female, 3 months old) are about 1.0mumol of fatty acid/min in ob/ob mice, and 0.25 in lean mice. 5. The major precursor of hepatic and plasma triglyceride in lean and ob/ob mice was calculated to be plasma free fatty acid. 6. These results are discussed, in connexion with the role of the liver in triglyceride metabolism in mice, especially in relation to genetic obesity.