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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Virus-induced diabetes mellitus. VI. Genetically determined host differences in the replicating of encephalomyocarditis virus in pancreatic beta cells.

Beta cells were isolated from strains of mice that were susceptible and resistant to encephalomyocarditis (EMC) viral-induced diabetes mellitus. Beta cells from susceptible mice that were infected in vivo with EMC virus showed higher viral titers, more severe degranulation, and lower concentrations of immunoreactive insulin than beta cells from resistant mice. Immunofluorescence and infectious center assays revealed that pancreas from susceptible mice contained at least 10 times more infected cells than pancreas from resistant mice. Beta cell cultures prepared from susceptible mice and infected in vitro also showed higher viral titers and more severe cytopathologic changes than beta cell cultures from resistant mice. In contrast to beta cell cultures, virus replicated equally well in primary embryo and kidney cell cultures from susceptible and resistant strains of mice. It is concluded that the development of EMC virus-induced diabetes is related to genetically determined host differences in the capacity of the virus to infect beta cells.

Animals

Insulin responses to mixed meals: comparison of an artificial beta cell and normal beta cells.

The peripheral glucose and free insulin levels seen following a mixed meal in six insulin-dependent diabetic patients whose insulin was administered by a glucose-controlled insulin infusion system (GCIIS) were compared to those of normal subjects who received the same mixed meal or who were given separately carbohydrate, protein, or fat in amounts equivalent to those contained in the mixed meal. Patients treated with the GCIIS achieved nearly normal glucose levels immediately after the mixed meal, but this was accompanied by marked hyperinsulinemia. In the period from 120 to 240 minutes after the start of the mixed meal, the GCIIS duplicates the insulin levels produced by the normal pancreas after a glucose meal and, with appropriate algorithm constants, closely approximates those seen after a mixed meal.

Artificial Organs

Separate pancreatic gastrin cell and beta-cell adenomas: report of a patient with multiple endocrine adenomatosis type 1.

A patient initially showed symptoms of peptic ulcer disease in 1953 and was later found to have hypercalcemia and hyperparathyroidism. Peptic ulcer symptoms persisted after parathyroidectomy, and results of studies provided evidence of the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. Evaluation of the patient's family showed a classic pattern of multiple endocrine adenomatosis type 1. The patient underwent total gastrectomy and excision of a gastrin cell adenoma in 1971 with relief of symptoms, but with persistent hypergastrinemia. He remained in good health until January 1976, when symptoms of hypoglycemia developed. Results of laboratory studies were compatible with the diagnosis of a pancreatic beta-cell adenoma. At the time of operation, an adenoma of the head of the pancreas was found. The tumor was excised; no other metastatic tumors were found. The tumor was compatible with a beta-cell adenoma and was found to contain high concentrations of insulin; there was no important amount of gastrin. Symptoms of hypoglycemia have entirely disappeared.

Adenoma

Calcium and pancreatic beta-cell function. 2. Mobilisation of glucose-sensitive 45Ca from perifused islets rich in beta-cells.

beta-Cell-rich pancreatic islets were microdissected from ob/ob-mice and loaded with 45Ca in the presence of 3 or 20 mM glucose. Subsequent measurements of the effluxes of radioactivity in a perifusion apparatus revealed that the slowly exchangeable 45Ca taken up in response to glucose was also preferentially mobilised by this compound. Glucose stimulation of 45Ca efflux was abolished after omission of calcium from the perifusion medium but persisted when insulin release was inhibited by prolonged starvation, addition of L-epinephrine or lowering of temperature. The presence of a stimulated efflux of radioactivity even under conditions of inhibited insulin release indicates that sources other than beta-granules ejected by exocytosis contribute to the additional 45Ca released after raising the glucose concentration of the perifusion medium. It is suggested that the beta-cell depolarisation as such may account for part of the 45Ca mobilised by glucose.

Animals

Artificial beta-cell application in two cases of insulinoma: a different pattern in beta-cell adenoma and carcinoma.

With the aid of an artificial beta-cell (Biostator, Miles Laboratories Inc.), a different metabolic and biological pattern of behaviour was observed in benign versus malignant insulinoma. In the patient with beta-cell adenoma but not in the one with carcinoma, plasma insulin concentrations decreased promptly and markedly, and blood glucose increased during diazoxide and somatostatin infusion. Moreover, only in the adenoma patient was glucose need characterized by a circadian rhythm with the maximum values during daytime. This behavior could reflect the degree of tumor beta-cell differentiation. The controlled glucose and insulin infusion was of great help during and after surgical treatment.

Adenoma

[Monolayer culture of pancreatic beta cells of newborn rats: Insulin secretion in vitro and attempt at beta-cell transplantation in experimental diabetes].

Partially purified beta cell monolayer cultures were prepared from the pancrease of neonatal Wistar rats by dissociating the cells with a trypsin-collagenase solution. The cultures were grown in medium 199 containing a 10% fetal calf serum and 100 or 300 mg/100 ml glucose. Insulin release from the primary cultures during 12 days was 15 to 20 microunit/culture/day when the cells were grown in the medium containing 300 mg/100 ml glucose. When glucose concentration in the medium was decreased from 300 to 100 mg/ml insulin release fell to 2--5 microunit/culture/day. Theophylline stimulated insulin release in a short-time experiment. Transplantation of a 6--8-day culture in diabetic rats reduced the blood glucose concentration for 1 to 2 days.

Animals

Attempts at perfect normalization of glucose tolerance test of severe diabetics by artificial beta cell.

The artificial beta cell is a Glucose Controlled Insulin (and dextrose) Infusion System (GCIIS) for maintaining normoglycemia in diabetic conditions and other disturbances of metabolism. The insulin and dextrose infusion rates are calculated by a microcomputer according to the static glucose concentration (proportional control) and to its rate of change (dynamic control). The algorithms controlling the computer can be adapted to the subjects' requirements. It has already been shown, that the artificial beta cell is able to maintain blood sugar values in diabetics within physiological ranges during the course of the day. In our present study we examined the response of the artificial beta cell using a 100 gm oral glucose load in severe diabetics. The first type of control algorithms applied effected a rather small initial insulin infusion following OGTT in 8 juvenile diabetics connected with the artificial beta cell. The glucose responses thus obtained were similar to latent diabetes. In contrast, when the computer was controlled by the second type of algorithms with a more responsive dynamic control and a consequently higher initial insulin infusion, in one diabetic OGTT was fully normalized, whereas an improvement was achieved in another diabetic patient. Furthermore it was shown that control algorithms must be varied individually, depending on residual beta cell function and glucose regulatory mechanisms.

Blood Glucose

Monolayer cell culture of human pancreatic beta cell tumor: effect of glucose and somatostatin on insulin release.

A human pancreatic beta cell tumor was maintained in monolayer cell culture for 80 days. The culture was terminated because of bacterial infection. Probably because extensive trypsin-collagenase dissociation was unnecessary, the dissociated cells attached much more quickly to the surface of the culture flask than do rat pancreatic cells obtained by enzymatic dissociation. Insulin release not only oscillated widely during the first 40 days of culture but also showed a decline from 380 mU the first week to about 50 mU/week the seventh week. For some unknown reason fibroblast overgrowth was not a major problem. Reduction of the medium glucose concentration from 16.5 mM to 5.5 mM did not alter insulin release rate. At glucose concentration of 16.5 mM, somatostatin 1.0 mug/ml reduced insulin release by 40%. From our previously reported studies on the effect of somatostatin on insulin release by monolayer cell cultures of rat endocrine pancreas, we conclude that the constant release of insulin by the tumor cells is relatively nonstimulated. We have confirmed that monolayer cultures of human pancreatic beta cell tumor do not represent a good model for normal human beta cell function because of the major shortcoming of an apparent inability to recognize glucose as a secretogogue.

Adenoma, Islet Cell

Interactions between the metabolism of L-leucine and D-glucose in the pancreatic beta-cells.

Beta-Cell-rich pancreatic islets microdissected from obese-hyperglycemic mice were used to study interactions between the metabolism of L-leucine and D-glucose. L-leucine reduced the islet content of aspartic acid whereas D-glucose, when added to L-leucine-incubated islets, increased the contents of aspartic acid and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). D-glucose also increased the incorporation of L-leucine carbon into aspartic acid, GABA and glutamic acid suggesting stimulation of a malate shuttle mechanism. When expressed per mole of the individual amino acids, the incorporation of L-leucine carbon into GABA was 2.5-4 times higher than into glutamic acid indicating intracellular compartmentation of the latter amino acid. Both L-leucine and D-leucine stimulated 14CO2 production from 14C-labelled D-glucose. L-leucine did not affect 3H2O production from tritiated D-glucose. The present data do not indicate a role of other amino acids or D-glucose in L-leucine-stimulated insulin release.

Animals

The absence of H-2 antigens from mouse pancreatic beta-cells demonstrated by immunoferritin labeling.

Islets of Langerhans were isolated from mouse pancreases and fixed in periodatelysine-paraformaldehyde. The fixed islets were then dissociated with trypsin and EDTA to yield cell suspensions that contained mainly four cell types; beta-cells, capillary endothelial cells, acinar cells, and pancreatic duct epithelial cells. The nonislet cells were probably associated wtih the surface of the isolated islets. The H-2 antigens of the dissociated pancreatic cells were labeled with an immunoferritin technique. Pancreatic duct epithelial cells showed specific ferritin labeling on their lateral cell membranes but not on apical microvillus membranes. Acinar cells were also labeled on lateral membranes, and the capillary endothelial cells were labeled on both the luminal and albuminal aspects of their surface membranes. In contrast, pancreatic beta-cells were unlabeled. The number of ferritin molecules per unit length of beta-cell membrane was essentially the same on cells from the antigenic strain and the congeneic control strain, and was about 200-fold less than on the labeled pancreatic duct epithelial cell lateral membranes. Pancreatic beta-cells are therefore one of six known epithelial cell types on which H-2 antigens can not be detected by immunoferritin labeling. The apparent absence of H-2 antigens from these cells suggests a study of the viability of beta-cells in allografts of dissociated islet cells, in which the beta-cell would not be in contact with antigenic cells. Such studies might lead to a new approach to the control of diabetes mellitus by transplantation.

Animals

Identification of beta-cells in dissociated rat pancreatic cell suspensions.

beta-Cells may be demonstrated in pancreas sections as well as in monolayer cultures. Until now, however, it has been impossible to differentiate quickly among individual cell types in freshly dissociated cell suspensions prepared for pancreatic monolayer cultures. Rapid identification of endocrine cells within the total cell population can be achieved by means of vital staining with neutral red. Moreover, the direct observation of unfixed and unstained cell suspensions under dark-field illumination allows an immediate identification of granulated beta-cells.

Animals

Long-term culture of pancreatic islet cells with special reference to the beta-cell function.

Islet cells of adult rat pancreas, dissociated with EDTA-Dispase, were cultivated in Microtest wells for over 2 months. In our cultures, islet cells were free-floating and cohered with each other to reorganize histotypic aggregates resembling the nondissociated islets. Morphologically, excellent preservation of islet cells in the aggregates was confirmed during the culture using both light and electron microscopy. The function of islet beta-cells, as demonstrated by the synthesis and release of insulin, also was retained throughout the culture period. Islet beta-cells cultured for long periods exhibited better response to the short-term stimulation of theophylline than to a high concentration of glucose, as observed in the islets of fetal or newborn rat pancreas.

Animals

Cell-specific DNA methylation in human alpha and beta cells regulates gene expression in type 2 diabetes.

Epigenome-wide studies of pancreatic islets provide valuable insights into type 2 diabetes (T2D) but lack methylomes from individual cell types. Here we show changes to alpha and beta cell-specific methylomes and transcriptomes from people with or without T2D, using whole-genome bisulfite sequencing and RNA sequencing. We discover 22,544 differentially methylated regions annotated to 7,975 genes in alpha versus beta cells, such as INS, GCG, PDX1 and PCSK1, with ~50% showing differential expression. CRISPR-dCas9-DNMT3A-based epigenetic editing increases INS and TH DNA methylation, while CRISPR-dCas9-TET1-based editing decreases GCG methylation, each altering INS, TH or GCG expression and content in beta cells. Pre-T2D/T2D-associated differentially methylated regions in alpha and beta cells overlap 12-18% of T2D-associated genome-wide association study candidates. Additionally, ONECUT2 is epigenetically upregulated in beta cells from people with pre-T2D/T2D and elevated in male Goto-Kakizaki rat islets. ONECUT2 overexpression in beta cells/islets downregulates gene sets impacting insulin secretion and glucose homeostasis, and reduces mitochondrial activity, ATP/ADP ratio and insulin secretion. We also provide 'alpha-beta-methylome' ( https://alpha-beta-methylome.serve.scilifelab.se/app/alpha-beta-methylome/ ), a resource exploring T2D, age and sex associations on methylation, highlighting cell-specific epigenetic regulation and dysfunctions contributing to T2D.

Humans

Pancreatic beta-cell replication: relation to insulin secretion.

The relationship between beta-cell replication and insulin release was investigated utilizing neonatal rat pancreatic monolayer cell cultures. Glucose-induced insulin release was either inhibited using diazoxide or mannoheptulose, or potentiated using theophylline. The corresponding effects on the frequency of beta-cell replication were determined by incubating cultures with [3H]thymidine and estimating the frequency of beta-cell labeling in aldehyde thionine-stained radioautographs. beta-Cell replication and insulin release were shown to be dissociable processes in two ways. First, in the presence of diazoxide (1-100 microgram/ml), insulin release was inhibited by as much as 86%, while the frequency of beta-cell replication was not reduced. Second, in the presence of theophylline (1 mM), insulin release was increased by 23%, while beta-cell replication was inhibited. Finally, the inhibition of both beta-cell replication and insulin release by mannoheptulose (5.5 mM) indicated that glucose utilization may be important for both of these beta-cell processes.

Animals

Studies on rats with islet beta cell tumors induced by nicotinamide and streptozotocin.

Islet beta cell adenomata were induced in rats by combined treatment with nicotinamide and streptozotocin. Three weeks after treatment marked alterations in glucose tolerance were noted in animals which later exhibited large beta cell tumors. Eight months after treatment, the rats known to have beta cell tumors on the basis of marked hypoglycemia and later confirmed by autopsy showed variable response to a glucose load. Some tumor-bearing rats showed fast response to glucose load, their blood sugar levels were elevated moderately and returned to normal or below normal levels rapidly; these animals are described as having "fast-acting tumors". Rats with "slow-acting tumors" responded sluggishly to a glucose load; their blood glucose pattern was similar to that of subdiabetic animals. Animals with beta cell tumors exhibited elevated serum insulin levels 30 min after glucose administration. Insulin biosynthesis by beta cell adenomata was demonstrated by in vitro incorporation of [14C]leucine into proinsulin and insulin. In the small number of tumor samples studied, a stimulatory effect of glucose on insulin biosynthesis was observed.

Adenoma

Effect of age on glucose-stimulated insulin release by the beta-cell of the rat.

To assess the effect of age on beta-cell insulin release, collagenase-isolated islets of Langerhans were obtained from rats aged 2--18 mo and incubated with increasing concentrations of glucose. Similar islets were analyzed for insulin content or subjected to morphometric measurements to identify both the number of beta-cells and the volume of beta-granules per islet. In parallel studies, the islet content of intact pancreata was also determined. The results showed that beta-cell number increased from 2,300 t0 5,000 cells as rats aged from 2 to 18 mo and islet insulin content doubled. However, glucose-stimulated insulin release decreased progressively with age, and this was especially striking when considered in terms of the increase in number of beta-cells/islet; e.g., mean (+/- SEM) insulin secretion (nanounits per minute per beta-cell) of islets incubated with 450 mg/dl of glucose was 1.3 (+/- 0.02), 1.0 (+/- 0.1), 0.4 (+/- 0.05), and 0.3 (+/- 0.01), respectively for 2-, 6-, 12-, and 18-mo-old rats. Thus, insulin secretion per beta-cell was decreased, despite increased stores of insulin per cell. These findings demonstrate that the aging process leads to a profound defect in glucose-stimulated insulin release from the beta-cell. Whether this is a global secretory defect, or solely a failure of the beta-cell to respond to glucose, remains to be defined.

Aging

Electron-microscopic study of the secretion of the ependymal cells in the domestic cat (ependymin-beta cells).

We have studied, by electron microscopy, the ultrastructural aspects of secretion (neurosecretion) of the ependyma of the third ventricle of the domestic cat. We have found cytoplasmic protrusions and isolated masses of cytoplasm, some with homogeneous cytoplasm and others with very dense granulation (protein-beta?). Axons, synaptic terminals and free secretory granules in the ventricular lumen were also seen. The existence of ependymin-beta cells (ependymocyte-beta) and axohormonal buttons is suggested. The ependymal cells are classified into seven types: (1) covering ependymocytes, (2) tanycyt ependymocytes, (3) secretory ependymocytes, (4) ependymocytes-beta, (5) neurosecretory ependymocytes, (6) neurosensorial ependymocytes (crown-like) and (7) supraependymal microgial ependymocytes. A neurohormonal hypothesis and the possible existence of one or more cerebral hormones (neurohormones) are suggested. These hormones would flow into the CSF through some of the ependymal cells (by microapocrine secretion, liberation of neurosecretion granules, or by axohormonal buttons): this could be the most important link in the endocrine system, assuring the functional unity throughout the ventricular system of the cerebrospinal axis which it winds through, although its basic influence is exercised) on the hypophysis level as a vertex of the classical endocrine system.

Animals

Use of a glucose controlled insulin infusion system (artificial beta cell) to control diabetes during surgery.

An artificial beta cell has been used to achieve and maintain a preset plasma glucose concentration in five diabetic patients undergoing surgery. These subjects were compared to control groups of normal subjects receiving either saline or glucose, and diabetics receiving glucose intraoperatively. Hyperglycaemia during surgery was seen in normals (mean plasma glucose +/- SEM: 185 +/- 16 mg/dl) and, to a greater degree, diabetics (247 +/- 36 mg/dl) receiving glucose. Insulin and C-peptide levels did not increase during 2 hours of operation in any of the control groups, suggesting beta cell suppression during surgery. As C-peptide levels declined similarly in normal subjects whether they received saline or glucose, the hyperglycaemia seems to be due to an inability to use exogenous glucose. This is confirmed by a correlation of maximal plasma glucose to glucose infusion rate (r = 0.78, p less than 0.01). The artificial beta cell was able to achieve the same plasma glucose after 2 hours of operation (128 +/- 21 mg/dl) as normal subjects receiving saline (110 +/- 7 mg/dl). The artificial beta cell proved to be a safe, convenient and effective way of monitoring and controlling the hyperglycaemia seen in diabetic patients undergoing surgery.

Blood Glucose