Abstract
Fetal pancreatic tissue (FPT) has a great potential for proliferation and may provide a suitable source for transplantation in treating diabetes mellitus. In order to characterize its insulin producing capacity, 8 human fetal pancreases of 13-20 wk. gest. were studied in organ culture for 7 days. DNA and insulin content and release into the culture-medium from day 3 to 7 were measured. Two types of medium both supplemented with 20% (W/V) heated fetal calf serum were used: 1) Eagle's minimum essential medium (MEM) was supplemented with 6 times the basal concentration of EAA containing 5 (7EAA1G) or 16.5 (7EAA3G) mmol/1 glucose and 2) "RPMI 1640 medium" contained 11.6 (R) or 23.2 (RG) mmol/1 glucose. Glucose enrichment increased tissue insulin content (μU/μg DNA) by 44 to 263% in 7EAA (20.5±1.5 in 1G vs 38.9±2.6 in 3G;p< 0.01) and by 34 to 276% in RPMI (16.9±1.5 in R vs 36.2±2.9 in RG;p<0.01). High EAA concentration itself favoured tissue insulin synthesis (7EAA1G larger than R;p< 0.001 and RG 31.1±5.7 vs R 12.1±2.6 μU/μg DNA;p< 0.001). The insulin specific activity (μU I/μg DNA) of FPT increased with gest. age being 0.24 at wk. 13 and 1.62 at wk. 20 in the fresh tissue and after 7 days of culture 25.2 at wk. 13 and 61.3 at wk. 20. Results indicate: 1) both insulin synthesis and release of FPT and HFPC increased in response to glucose and essential amino acids and 2) the combination of high glucose and high essential amino acids containing medium can potentiate the fetal pancreatic tissue capacity for insulin synthesis in a transplant.
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Cser, A., Milner, R. THE EFFECT OF GLUCOSE (G) AND ESSENTIAL AMINO ACIDS (EAA) ON INSULIN (I) BIOSYNTHESIS AND RELEASE IN HUMAN FETAL PANCREAS CULTURES(HFPC). Pediatr Res 18 (Suppl 4), 166 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198404001-00439
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198404001-00439