Inhibition by mepacrine and p-bromophenacylbromide of phosphoinositide hydrolysis, glucose oxidation, calcium uptake and insulin release in rat pancreatic islets.

Mepacrine and p-bromophenacylbromide were both found to impair 3H-inositol phosphate production in response to both nutrient and hormone-neurotransmitter stimuli in islets prelabelled with 3H-inositol. Both drugs also inhibited net 45Ca uptake in response to glucose or glibenclamide and considerably modified the patterns of 45Ca and 86Rb efflux from perifused islets under both basal and glucose-stimulated conditions. In addition, the oxidation of [U-14C] glucose in islets was impaired by either mepacrine or p-bromophenacylbromide. These inhibitory effects were found to be concentration-related for both mepacrine (0.01-1.0 mM) and p-bromophenacylbromide (0.03-0.3 mM) and were accompanied, in general, by a similar degree of inhibition of insulin secretion. These results suggest that both mepacrine and p-bromophenacylbromide can inhibit phospholipase C activity in intact islets, but also impair 45Ca and 86Rb fluxes and oxidation of nutrients. The diversity of these drugs' inhibitory actions makes them unsuitable tools for examining the role of specific cellular processes in the regulation of islet function.