PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

H J Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to H J Zhang.

13 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Preservation of insulin mRNA levels and insulin secretion in HIT cells by avoidance of chronic exposure to high glucose concentrations.

Glucose toxicity of the pancreatic beta cell is considered to play a secondary role in the pathogenesis of type II diabetes mellitus. To gain insights into possible mechanisms of action of glucose toxicity, we designed studies to assess whether the loss of insulin secretion associated with serial passages of HIT-T15 cells might be caused by chronic exposure to high glucose levels since these cells are routinely cultured in media containing supramaximal stimulatory concentrations of glucose. We found that late passages of HIT cells serially cultured in media containing 11.1 mM glucose lost insulin responsivity and had greatly diminished levels of insulin content and insulin mRNA. In marked contrast, late passages of HIT cells cultured serially in media containing 0.8 mM glucose retained insulin mRNA, insulin content, and insulin responsivity to glucose in static incubations and during perifusion with glucose. No insulin gene mutation or alteration of levels of GLUT-2 were found in late passages of HIT cells cultured with media containing 11.1 mM glucose. These data uniquely indicate that loss of beta cell function in HIT cells passed serially under high glucose conditions is caused by loss of insulin mRNA, insulin content, and insulin secretion and is preventable by culturing HIT cells under low glucose conditions. This strongly suggests potential genetic mechanisms of action for glucose toxicity of beta cells.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Somatostatin and epinephrine decrease insulin messenger ribonucleic acid in HIT cells through a pertussis toxin-sensitive mechanism.

The sites of action for somatostatin and epinephrine to inhibit insulin secretion have been reported to be exclusively in the exocytotic pathway. We used HIT cells, a clonal line of beta-cells, to examine whether these hormones might have as yet undescribed, nonexocytotic effects on insulin messenger RNA levels. We observed that both somatostatin and epinephrine not only inhibit insulin secretion (53 +/- 2% and 50 +/- 2% of control, respectively) but also decrease insulin mRNA levels (54 +/- 5% and 66 +/- 5% of control, respectively) and insulin content in HIT cells (61 +/- 2% and 51 +/- 1% of control, respectively). The latter two effects are discernible by 24 h, maximal by 48 h, and are prevented by preincubation of HIT cells with pertussis toxin. These new observations suggest that somatostatin and epinephrine negatively modulate insulin availability through a guanine nucleotide binding protein-mediated step in insulin synthesis before the exocytotic pathway. This general mechanism may allow these two hormones to serve as more long-term regulators of insulin availability in distinction to their shorter term and more readily reversible inhibitory effects on the exocytotic pathway.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Dysregulated release and degradation of insulin during mononuclear cell-induced beta-cell lysis in HIT cells.

Activated human mononuclear cells (MCs) were coincubated for 8 h with HIT cells, a clonal cell line of pancreatic islet beta-cells. Measurements of HIT cell viability and insulin secretion were determined to 1) ascertain whether activated MCs can alter beta-cell viability in the absence of exogenously provided cytokines, 2) examine this response over a range of MC-HIT cell ratios, and 3) identify mechanisms responsible for altered insulin release consequent to MC-induced HIT cell damage. HIT cell viability was markedly decreased by activated MCs during an 8-h coincubation. HIT cell lysis could be attributed to activated natural killer cells, and lysis did not occur in the presence of activated T-lymphocyte clones. Activated MCs caused a marked early increase in insulin release from HIT cells (increase at 2 h: 7.75 +/- 0.16 nM for activated MCs, 2.66 +/- 0.09 nM for control; P less than 0.001). Insulin levels by the 8th h of the coincubation were significantly lower than the 2-h peak (4.33 +/- 0.13 vs. 7.75 +/- 0.16 nM, P less than 0.001). These changes in insulin were dependent on the ratio of activated MCs to HIT cells with the effects clearly evident at an activated MC-HIT cell ratio of greater than or equal to 10:1. Pretreatment of activated MCs and HIT cells with prostaglandin-synthesis inhibitors did not prevent the cytotoxic effects of activated MCs on HIT cells. Somatostatin did not inhibit the early exaggerated insulin release, suggesting that these increased insulin levels represented leakage of insulin from damaged HIT cells rather than functional insulin secretion.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Arachidonic Acids↗
PubMed1991

[A study of the mechanism of production of night myopia at low luminance environment].

The mechanism of production of night myopia was investigated in detail by using a laser-speckle refractometer. Night myopia begins to appear at the luminance level with the emergence of rod (scotopic) vision and increases to a maximum average of 1.35 D with further decrease of environmental luminance for the completion of rod vision. It is demonstrated experimentally that both spherical and chromatic aberrations of the eye do not play an important role in the production of night myopia. It is therefore concluded that night myopia is posed on the dark focus of accommodation of the resting state focus of the eye in the absence of adequate stimulus during scotopic vision.

Accommodation, Ocular↗
PubMed1990

Monoclonal anti-human T cell antibody and PAP-s conjugate--preparation and selective cytotoxic properties on leukemic cell.

Pokeweed antiviral protein (PAP-s) was prepared from seeds of Phytolacca americana. Monoclonal antibody against human pan-T lymphocyte Wu71 was linked to PAP-s by a disulfide bond. The results of SDS-PAGE, double immunodiffusion of active monoclonal antibody and PAP-s showed that the conjugate was highly cytotoxic to the human T-leukemic cell line CEM, but not to antigen-negative cell line SP2/O. At a concentration of 10(-9) mol/L, 76.4% of the target cells were killed, as compared with 10.1% at 10(-9) mol/L of free PAP-s. Treatment of the CEM cells with conjugate at 10(-9) mol/L reduced their rate of protein synthesis by 72.4%, as determined with 14C-leucine incorporation. The immunotoxin may be useful for the in-vitro eradication of leukemic cells in autologous bone marrow transplantation to leukemia patients.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗
PubMed1990

Secretion and degradation of glucagon by HIT cells.

HIT cells have been widely used to study synthesis and secretion of insulin. It has been assumed that this cell line secretes no other islet hormones. To ascertain whether HIT cells synthesize, secrete, and degrade glucagon, we examined cell extracts for this peptide and compared secretion and degradation of glucagon and insulin during stimulation of the cells by arginine. Glucagon levels in acid extracts of HIT cells were found to be 0.72 +/- 0.15 pmol/mg protein. Both glucagon and insulin were maximally stimulated in a glucagon/insulin molar ratio of 0.029 by arginine concentrations of 25-50 nM, and the concentration of arginine that provided half-maximum responses for both hormones was approximately 3 mM. Diminution of arginine-induced glucagon secretion was caused by somatostatin, a physiological inhibitor of pancreatic islet alpha-cell function. HPLC was used to authenticate the glucagon levels stimulated by arginine for 60 min and measured by RIA. Thirty-six percent of immunoreactive glucagon was found in the fractions representing authentic glucagon, whereas the remaining 64% eluted earlier. Experiments examining the fate of radiolabeled glucagon exposed to HIT cells revealed time-dependent degradation of the radioisotope to earlier eluting forms, which accounted for approximately 50% of the radioactivity by 60 min and was complete by 18 h, indicating that the early peak detected by RIA represented a metabolite of glucagon. Radioisotopic insulin was degraded more slowly with an apparent half-life of approximately 36 h. We conclude that HIT cells are not only able to synthesize, secrete, and degrade insulin, but also much smaller amounts of glucagon.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

[Studies on elimination of mycoplasmas from cell line cultures].

Mycoplasmas were effectively eliminated from contaminated LTK and CHO cell lines by means of the antibiotic Tiamutin (10 micrograms/ml), while Kanamycin and Gentamycin were less potential. An elimination procedure which involved the consecutive treatment of the cell cloning over a periods of 21-28 days was adopted. This procedure was effective when applied to cell lines contaminated with unidentified and partially non-cultivable strains of mycoplasmas which could be detected by electronic microscope.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Increase in Gs and cyclic AMP generation in HIT cells. Evidence that the 45-kDa alpha-subunit of Gs has greater functional activity than the 52-kDa alpha-subunit.

Cyclic AMP accumulation in response to forskolin, cholera toxin, or isoproterenol is dramatically increased in HIT T-15 cells, a clonal cell line of Syrian hamster pancreatic islet beta cells, as a function of passage number. Forskolin and cholera toxin elevate cyclic AMP levels 5- to 10-fold higher in later passages (87-100) than in earlier passages (70-80). A similar phenomenon is observed with isoproterenol (10 microM) which increases cyclic AMP levels 56-fold in older HIT cells (passage 94), whereas only marginally stimulating cyclic AMP production in younger cells (passage 70-82). To determine whether a change in the stimulatory or inhibitory guanine nucleotide regulatory proteins, Gs or Gi, was responsible for these observations, ADP-ribosylation of HIT cell membranes with cholera toxin and pertussis toxin was examined. All passages contained two cholera toxin substrates at 52 and 45 kDa. The amount of 52 kDa did not appear to change with passage number, but the amount of 45 kDa increased in the later passages (89 and 94). The ratio of 45 to 52 kDa cholera toxin substrate, as determined by densitometric analysis, increased from 0.1 in passages 70, 75, and 82 to 0.45 at passage 89. No passage related changes in a 40-kDa pertussis toxin substrate were observed. An increase in the amount of the 45-kDa alpha-subunit of Gs was confirmed on immunoblots using antisera specific for the alpha-subunits of Gs. The amount of functional Gs present in various HIT cell passages was examined by determining the extent to which extracts from HIT cell membranes reconstituted guanine nucleotide-sensitive adenylyl cyclase in S49 cyc- membranes. Extracts derived from passage 94 reconstituted three to four times more adenylyl cyclase activity in cyc- membranes than extracts from passages 70, 75, and 82. These data indicate that an increase in functional Gs in later passages may be the underlying cause for the increased responsiveness to isoproterenol and forskolin in later passages. These data also suggest that functional differences exist between the Gs alpha-subunits, with the smaller 45-kDa subunit being more efficacious in coupling to cyclic AMP synthesis than the larger 52-kDa subunit. This is a departure from the commonly held view that the two subunits have similar efficacies in stimulating adenylyl cyclase.

Adenylate Cyclase Toxin↗
PubMed1989

Insulin secretion and cAMP metabolism in HIT cells. Reciprocal and serial passage-dependent relationships.

The HIT cell is a variably glucose-responsive clonal line of pancreatic islet beta-cells. To ascertain whether insulin responsiveness to glucose, arginine, isoproterenol, forskolin, and K+ varied in a predictable fashion, full concentration-response curves with these agonists were examined with cells from a span of 25 passages. Basal and stimulated cAMP metabolism were also examined. The findings indicate that insulin responses to glucose diminish progressively with increasing passage number and that studies of glucose-induced insulin secretion should be limited to passages 81 and earlier. This defect in insulin secretion is a general rather than a glucose-specific phenomenon in that insulin responses to the other nonglucose secretagogues also diminished with increasing passage number. All changes in glucose-stimulated responses were limited to diminutions in maximal responses; no alterations in apparent half-maximal effective concentrations (EC50s) were observed. In contrast to the continually diminishing insulin responsiveness observed, hormone inhibition by somatostatin of insulin secretion and basal cAMP metabolism remained intact throughout the passages examined. Interestingly, a reciprocal relationship between insulin responsiveness and cAMP responsiveness was observed. Dramatic cAMP responses to isoproterenol and forskolin were observed with the later passages. We conclude that loss of insulin responsivity in HIT cells is a passage-dependent process that is serial rather than sporadic and global rather than glucose specific. Dramatic reciprocal changes in cAMP metabolism occur in the later passages.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Receptor-mediated adenylate cyclase-coupled mechanism for PGE2 inhibition of insulin secretion in HIT cells.

Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) inhibits glucose-induced insulin secretion, and inhibitors of PGE2 synthesis augment this event. However, there has been confusion regarding prostaglandin regulation of insulin secretion, partly because no mechanism has been demonstrated for the inhibitory action of PGE2 on beta-cell function. These studies were performed with a clonal cell line of glucose-responsive beta-cells (HIT cells) to determine whether PGE2 effects on insulin secretion are receptor mediated and, if so, whether the postreceptor effects are mediated by inhibitory regulatory components (Ni) of adenylate cyclase. Saturable [3H]PGE2 binding to HIT cells was demonstrated. This binding was dissociable and specific for prostaglandins of the E series. Scatchard analyses of binding data indicated a single class of sites with a Kd of approximately 1 X 10(-9) M. Guinea pig islets were also demonstrated to have a single class of binding sites with a similar Kd but only 22% as many binding sites (0.060 vs. 0.013 pmol/mg protein, HIT cells vs. guinea pig islet). HIT cells were demonstrated to synthesize PGE2, and this synthesis was inhibitable by acetylsalicylic acid. Accumulation of cAMP by HIT cells was inhibited in a concentration-dependent manner by PGE2 with an IC50 of approximately 1 X 10(-9) M. Insulin secretion by HIT cells during static incubations with 11.1 mM glucose was also inhibited by PGE2 in a concentration-dependent manner with an IC50 of 1 X 10(-9) M. PGE2 was more potent than epinephrine but less potent than somatostatin in this regard. Maximum inhibition of glucose-induced insulin secretion was 26, 37, and 29% of control values for somatostatin, PGE2, and epinephrine, respectively.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adenylate Cyclase Toxin↗