EFFECT OF LOW-TEMPERATURES ON GLUCOSE-INDUCED INSULIN-SECRETION AND GLUCOSE-METABOLISM IN ISOLATED PANCREATIC-ISLETS OF THE RAT

The direct effect of hypothermia on the inhibition of insulin secretion may result from inhibition of the availability of energetic substrates and/or the lack of metabolic signals. In order to verify this hypothesis, the insulin secretion and the main metabolic glucose pathways were measured during the incubation of rat islets. In the presence of 16.7 mmol glucose/l and at 37°C, insulin secretion was 925 ± 119 μU/2 h per ten islets. With the same experimental conditions, glucose utilization, determined as the formation of 3H2O from [5-3H]glucose was 2225 ± 184 pmol/2 h per ten islets, glucose oxidation measured as the formation of 14CO2 from [U-14C]glucose was 673 ± 51 pmol/2 h per ten islets, pentose cycle determined as the formation of 14CO2 from either [1-14C]glucose or [6-14C]glucose was 37 ± 5 pmol/2 h per ten islets; glucose oxidation by the tricarboxilic acid cycle, calculated to be the difference between glucose oxidation and pentose cycle values, was 636 pmol/2 h per ten islets. Hypothermia highly inhibited glucose-induced insulin secretion and glucose utilization. Inhibition of insulin secretion was partial at 27°C since it was 2.5 times lower than that at 37°C, and it was complete at 17°C. Glucose oxidation in the tricarboxilic acid cycle was markedly inhibited by hypothermia since the inhibition coefficient (Q10) between 37 and 27°C was 5. In contrast, glucose oxidation in the pentose phosphate shunt was enhanced at 27°C, reaching 92 ± 17 pmol/2 h per ten islets, and it was inhibited relatively little at 17°C. These results suggest that hypothermia markedly inhibits glucose metabolism with the exception of the pentose pathway which could play an important role by inducing the insulin secretion at 27°C.