The stimulus-secretion coupling of amino acid-induced insulin release. XI. Kinetics of deamination and transamination reactions.

L-Leucine and its nonmetabolized analogue, 2-aminobicyclo-[2,2,1]heptane-2-carboxylic acid (BCH) activate glutamate dehydrogenase in pancreatic islets, whether the reaction velocity is measured in the direction of glutamate synthesis or glutamate deamination. The rate of glutamate oxidative deamination is increased by ADP and inhibited by 2-ketoglutarate, NH4+ and GTP. The islet homogenate catalyzes the transamination between L-glutamate and either 2-ketoisocaproate or pyruvate, and between 2-ketoglutarate and L-leucine, L-aspartate, L-alanine, L-isoleucine, L-valine, L-norvaline or L-norleucine, but not b (+/-) BCH. The glutamate-aspartate transaminase is preferentially located in mitochondria relative to other transaminases. The parallel effects of L-leucine and BCH on glutamate dehydrogenase and their vastly different abilities to act as transamination partners may account for both analogies and discrepancies in the metabolic and functional responses of the islets to these two branched-chain amino acids.