Cell culture and in vitro studies of fresh and cryopreserved human insulinoma

Summary Dispersed cells from both fresh and cryopreserved human insulinoma have been maintained in cell culture. Initial yield of viable cells was 50% for fresh and 25% for cryopreserved tissue. Viability of cells in culture was documented by increasing numbers of cells (doubling time approximately 5 d initially and 2 d at the sixth subculture for both fresh and cryopreserved tissue) and continued release of insulin over time (approximately 100 ng/ml per 10⁵ cells at 10 d and 175 ng/ml per 10⁵ cells at 30 d of culture for both fresh and cryopreserved tissue). Evidence that cells growing in culture were beta cells was provided by: (a) recovery of intracellular and extracellular immunoreactive insulin (IRI), (b) electron microscopic morphology, and (c) immunohistochemical staining. Cells from fresh insulinoma incubated with increasing concentrations of extracellular glucose released increasing amounts of IRI up to approximately 15 mM glucose, which paralleled changes in plasma insulin obtained during a preoperative glucose tolerance test. Under an Intergovernmental Personnel Act Exchange from the Department of Surgery, University of California, Davis, Sacramento Medical Center.     

Protists have divergent effects on bacterial diversity along a productivity gradient

Productivity and predation are thought to be crucial drivers of bacterial diversity. We tested how the productivity–diversity of a natural bacterial community is modified by the presence of protist predators with different feeding preferences. In the absence of predators, there was a unimodal relationship between bacterial diversity and productivity. We found that three protist species (Bodo, Spumella and Cyclidium) had widely divergent effects on bacterial diversity across the productivity gradient. Bodo and Cyclidium had little effect on the shape of the productivity–diversity gradient, while Spumella flattened the relationship. We explain these results in terms of the feeding preferences of these predators.     

The Effect of Dietary Energy Restriction on Body Weight Gain and the Development of Noninsulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (NIDDM) in Psammomys obesus

Food intake was restricted to 75% of ad libitum levels in 37 male Psammomys obesus (Israeli Sand Rats) from the ages of 4 (weaning) to 10 weeks. Energy restriction reduced the mean body weight at 10 weeks by 29% compared with 44 ad libitum fed controls. Hyperglycemia was prevented completely in the food-restricted group, and mean blood glucose concentrations were significantly reduced (3.8 ± 0.2 vs. 5.5 ± 0.4 μmol/L; p<0.05) compared with control animals. Plasma insulin concentrations were also decreased significantly compared with ad libitum fed controls (105 ± 13 vs. 241 ± 29 mU/L;p<0.05). Although energy restriction prevented hyperglycemia from developing in 10-week-old P. obesus, 19% of the food restricted animals still developed hyperinsu-linemia. We concluded that hyperphagia between the ages of 4 to 10 weeks may be essential for the development of noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in P. obesus, but that hyperinsulinemia may still occur in the absence of hyperphagia and hyperglycemia, suggesting a significant genetic influence on the development of hyperinsulinemia in this animal model.     

Substrate-dependent inhibition of yeast enolase by fluoride

A possibly physiologically significant inhibition of yeast enolase by fluoride occurs in the absence of inorganic phosphate. The inhibition increases with time, is strongly dependent on fluoride concentration and requires substrate and “catalytic” Mg²⁺. The inhibition increases more slowly in the presence of product (phosphoenolpyruvate) than substrate (2-phosphoglycerate). The dependence on fluoride concentration and the spans of substrate analogue displacement titrations suggest the inhibition is produced by two moles of fluoride per active site.     

Sensing vascular distension in skeletal muscle by slow conducting afferent fibers: neurophysiological basis and implication for respiratory control.

This review examines the evidence that skeletal muscles can sense the status of the peripheral vascular network through group III and IV muscle afferent fibers. The anatomic and neurophysiological basis for such a mechanism is the following: 1) a significant portion of group III and IV afferent fibers have been found in the vicinity and the adventitia of the arterioles and the venules; 2) both of these groups of afferent fibers can respond to mechanical stimuli; 3) a population of group III and IV fibers stimulated during muscle contraction has been found to be inhibited to various degrees by arterial occlusion; and 4) more recently, direct evidence has been obtained showing that a part of the group IV muscle afferent fibers is stimulated by venous occlusion and by injection of vasodilatory agents. The physiological relevance of sensing local distension of the vascular network at venular level in the muscles is clearly different from that of the large veins, since the former can directly monitor the degree of tissue perfusion. The possible involvement of this sensing mechanism in respiratory control is discussed mainly in the light of the ventilatory effects of peripheral vascular occlusions during and after muscular exercise. It is proposed that this regulatory system anticipates the chemical changes that would occur in the arterial blood during increased metabolic load and attempts to minimize them by adjusting the level of ventilation to the level of muscle perfusion, thus matching the magnitudes of the peripheral and pulmonary gas exchange.     

Huxley: From Devil's Disciple to Evolution's High Priest

Huxley: From Devil's Disciple to Evolution's High Priest. Adrian Desmond. Reading. MA: Addison-Wesley. 1997.820 pp.     

RECENT APPEARANCE OF CYLINDROSPEMOPSIS (CYANOBACTEIUA) IN FIVE HYPEREUTROPHIC FLORIDA LAKES1

Observations of historical and recent phytoplankton samples from five hypereutrophic Florida lakes indicate that nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria in the genus Cylindrospermopsis Seenayya et Subba Raju have entered these water-bodies sometime in the last 30 years. Cylindrospermopsis forms a year-round bloom in one of the five lakes, dominates seasonally in another, and is at least at times an important component of the phytoplankton community in the remaining three. The increase in abundance of Cylindrospermopsis in Florida lakes could have implications for water management.