Islet cell analysis and purification by light scatter and autofluorescence.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D Pipeleers.
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Similar to other endocrine glands, the endocrine pancreas displays a characteristic topography of its constituent cells. The functional significance of this structural organization was examined by measuring the secretory activity of the B cell in rat islet cell preparations of different composition. Glucose released 30-fold more insulin from B cells lodged within intact islets as from purified single B cells; structurally coupled B cells and single B cells isolated with A cells or incubated with glucagon responded 4- and 2-fold, respectively, more effectively to glucose than single B cells alone. Glucose homeostasis is thus dependent not only on the number and integrity of the insulin-containing B cells but also on their interactions with neighboring B and non-B cells. This study provides direct support for the concept that the microanatomy of the islet creates the anatomical basis for functional cooperation between islet cells and hence for an appropriate glucose-induced insulin release.
Viable rat islet cells were used to detect islet cell surface antibodies (ICSA) in the sera of diabetic and control patients. ICSA were present in almost all recent-onset insulin-dependent diabetics younger than 30 yr (15/16); their incidence in other diabetics (6/22) was also higher than in normal controls (1/18) or in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis (1/12). The varying specificity of the ICSA for the different islet cell types led to the recognition of class I sera, whose ICSA bind exclusively to B cells, class II sera, binding only to A and pancreatic polypeptide (PP) cells and class III sera, reacting with the three islet cell types but not with D cells. Most recent-onset insulin-dependent diabetics younger than 30 contained class I-ICSA, which is consistent with an autoimmune basis of their disease and with an involvement of surface antibodies in the B cell destruction. The presence of class II ICSA in three older diabetics and in one normal control raises the question whether autoimmune reactions against A and PP cells exist and are associated with a distinct entity in islet disease. It is concluded that the autoimmune form of diabetes mellitus represents a heterogeneous group, in which ICSA-positive patients can be distinguished on the basis of their ICSA-binding to one or more islet cell types. Three techniques can be used for the further identification of circulating ICSA, namely binding experiments with purified A or B cells, electron microscopical analysis of ICSA-binding islet cells purified by fluorescence-activated cell sorting, and the immunocytochemical characterization of ICSA-positive cells.
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Plasma somatostatin immunoreactivity (SIR) was elevated 40-fold in an insulin-treated diabetic with disseminated pancreatic carcinoma. The diagnosis of somatostatinoma was supported by histological and ultrastructural similarities between metastatic cells and pancreatic D cells. Under acid conditions, 75% of the plasma SIR eluted as a 6000- to 7000-dalton protein and 25% as synthetic somatostatin (mol wt 1600), whereas the 20-fold elevated urine SIR consisted almost exclusively of the higher molecular weight fraction. The hypersomatostatinemia was associated with reduced basal and stimulated pancreatic hormone levels, which might reflect its involvement in the steatorrhea and diabetes, and its protection against ketoacidosis. Plasma SIR rose 50% upon insulin withdrawal and 10-fold after tolbutamide injection and fell 30% after diazoxide. It is concluded that an increase in plasma and urine SIR, the presence of a 6000- to 7000-dalton SIR fraction in plasma and urine, a reduction in basal and stimulated pancreatic hormone levels, and tolbutamide-induced somatostatin release can be diagnostic for a somatostatinoma. Streptozotocin reduced tumor volume, hypersomatostatinemia, and tolbutamide-induced somatostatin release, suggesting that this drug may be useful in the treatment of disseminated somatostatinoma.
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