Insulin release in vitro from islet tissues and adenomas of rats treated with nicotinamide and streptozotocin. The effects of glucose.

Young male Holtzman rats injected with nicotinamide and streptozotocin develop grossly visible tumors of pancreatic islet tissue. Using an i.v. glucose tolerance test, some tumor-bearing animals exhibited a vigorous (or fast) response to glucose loading (Diabetic Index = 0.47), whereas others showed a subdiabetic (or slow) response (Diabetic Index = 2.34). In vitro perifusion studies demonstrate that tumor pieces from both groups of rats released immunoreactive insulin (IRI) in response to glucose; tumors from fast responding rats showed a rapid monophasic release of IRI (i.e., rapid transient release with little secondary phase), while tumors from slow responders released IRI in a biphasic pattern resembling that of normal islets. A population of large islet masses (or microscopic tumors), isolated from drug-treated rats by collagenase digestion of the pancreas of tumor-containing rats, exhibited glucose-stimulated IRI release that resembled the pattern of the tumor from the same animal. Isolated islets of Langerhans of ordinary size from the pancreas of tumor-bearing rats, on the other hand, usually exhibited a normal (biphasic) IRI release pattern in response to glucose. Analysis by gel filtration suggests that the predominant form of IRI released from perifused tumor preparations, under either basal or glucose-stimulated conditions, eluted at a rate corresponding to rat insulin.