Evolution of insulin secretory response to glucose by perifused islets from lean (FA/FA) rats chronically infused with glucose.

Chronic infusion of nondiabetic rats with glucose for up to 7 days modified the insulin secretory response by subsequently perifused islets. Thus, on the 1st day of infusion with 40% glucose, the islets responded to 16.7 mM glucose with a 3.9-fold increase in insulin release during the first 10 min with no significant change during the second-phase insulin output compared with the control group. On the 2nd day, there was a 2-fold enhancement of insulin release during the initial 10 min of stimulation, the second phase being a similar to control islets. On the 5th day of infusion, the pattern of insulin release was not significantly different from the control group. After 7 day of infusion, there was a 46% decrease in first-phase and a 33% decrease in second-phase insulin response to glucose. The response to 10 mM arginine plus 5 mM glucose was not modified by chronic glucose infusion. Priming experiments indicate that islets from rats infused for 7 days were not able to recover the normal pattern of secretion in vitro. Islets from 7-day glucose-infused rats contained 75% more protein and had a significantly higher insulin content than control islet, suggesting that insulin synthesis is not involved in the loss of the response observed. Glucose metabolism by the islets was modified by glucose infusion with a significant increase in glucose utilization and no changes in glucose oxidation, suggesting that alterations in mitochondrial oxidative events are involved in the phenomenon of desensitization.